218 



HALIAETUS. SEA-EAGLE. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, very high, at the base of 

 nearly the same breadth and height, gradually compressed ; 

 upper mandible with the cere large and bare, the dorsal line 

 nearly straight along the cere, then decurved in the fourth of 

 a circle, at the end slightly incurvate, the ridge along the cere 

 broad and flattened, in the rest of its extent convex, gradually 

 narrowed to the tip, the sides flattish and nearly erect, the edges 

 thin, nearly straight, with a slight festoon anterior to the cere, 

 then decurved, the tip elongated, trigonal, acute, concave be- 

 neath ; lower mandible scarcely a third of the height of the 

 upper, its angle long, of moderate width, and rounded, the 

 edges soft, obtuse, and straight for more than half their length, 

 then sharp and gradually decurved, the ridge broad and con- 

 vex, the sides ascending and convex, the tip rounded and thin- 

 edged. 



Mouth wide, palate flat, with two longitudinal prominent 

 lines ; upper mandible slightly concave within, the lower more 

 deeply concave, posterior aperture of the nares oblong, with an 

 anterior slit. Tongue fleshy, deeply emarginate and papillate 

 at the base, with one of the lateral papillfie large, concave above, 

 the sides nearly parallel, the tip rounded. (Esophagus very 

 wide, with a very large crop lying toward the right side. A 

 broad belt of proventricular glands. Stomach large or of mo- 

 derate size, roundish, its muscular coat thin and composed of 

 a single series of fasciculi ; the tendinous spaces round and thin. 

 The intestine very long and narrow ; the duodenum extremely 

 elongated, and instead of forming a single loop as usual, dis- 

 posed into a coil of several folds, in which respect it differs from 

 that of any other British genus. The coeca are very small, the 

 cloaca very large and globular. Plate XX, Fig. 1. 



Nostrils oblong, oblique, sub-basal, near the ridge, in the 



