110 CUCULUS CANORUS. 



interest. In shape it bears some resemblance to the Kestrel, 

 and in colour to the Sparrow-hawk. The body is rather 

 small in proportion to the plumage, the head ovate, and of 

 ordinary size. The bill is shorter than the head, at the base 

 rather broader than high, compressed toward the end, and 

 somewhat arched. The upper mandible has its dorsal outline 

 arcuato-declinate, the ridge rather narrow, the sides sloping 

 and becoming gradually more convex towards the end, the tip 

 a little decurved, narrow, sharp, with slight indications of 

 notches, the edges sharp and a little overlapping. The lower 

 mandible has the angle short and wide, the dorsal outline con- 

 cave, the ridge narrow, the sides sloping outwards, flat at the 

 base, convex towards the end, the edges sharp, the tip narrow. 

 The gape-line is considerably arched, and the mouth wide. 



The upper mandible is internally flat, with a slightly promi- 

 nent central line ; the whole roof of the mouth is also flat, as 

 in Goatsuckers and Swifts. The posterior aperture of the nares 

 linear and papillate. The tongue, PI. XV,Fig. 1, a, rather short, 

 slender, thin, oblong, slightly concave above, emarginate at the 

 base, with minute papillae, and a large pointed one at each 

 angle, the tip acute, but varying considerably, as will be after- 

 wards explained. The aperture of the glottis has numerous 

 flat, pointed papillae, and two large acuminate ones behind. 

 The mouth measures ten and a half twelfths of an inch across. 

 The oesophagus, b, c, is five and a half inches long, and tapers 

 from a diameter of ten twelfths to that of five twelfths, so as 

 to be somewhat funnel shaped in its extra-thoracic part. Its 

 walls are extremely thin, the inner coat longitudinally plicate 

 when not distended, and plentifully supplied with mucus. 

 The proventriculus, d, is elliptical, about an inch long, its 

 greatest diameter seven twelfths ; its glandules large, generally 

 half a twelfth in diameter, the upper oblong and inclined down- 

 wards, as is seen in Fig. 2, a, b, and c, the lowest ovate and 

 directed upwards, those about two-thirds down roundish and 

 direct, all simple or unlobed. The stomach, Fig. 1, e,/, is 

 large, round, an inch and three twelfths long, an inch and 

 two twelfths broad, nine twelfths in thickness ; its muscular 

 coat is very thin, and composed of distinct flattened fasciculi, 



