326 FALCO TINNUNCULUS. 



the same terms as the Merlin ; the body being moderately full, 

 the neck very short, the head large, broad, and flattened above. 

 The bill is short and strong ; the upper mandible with its 

 dorsal line decurved from the base, in about the third of a 

 circle, its sides convex, its edges sharp, with a moderate fes- 

 toon, and a distinct angular process, the tip descending, tri- 

 gonal, acute ; the lower mandible with the angle wide and 

 short, the dorsal line convex, the back broad, the sides con- 

 vex, the edges inflected, with a semicircular notch on each 

 side close to the almost directly truncate tip. 



Internally the upper mandible has a very prominent median 

 ridge ; the lower, which is deeply concave, an elevated line. 

 The two longitudinal palatal ridges are minutely papillate ; the 

 posterior aperture of the nares narrow-oblong behind, linear 

 before. The tongue is fleshy, short, emarginate and papillate 

 behind, channelled above, horny beneath with a median groove, 

 roundish and emarginate at the end. The oesophagus is four 

 inches and a half in length, dilates into a crop an inch and a 

 half in width, then contracts to half an inch, again dilates 

 considerably in the proventricular part, which has a belt of 

 glandules three quarters of an inch in breadth. The stomach 

 is roundish, somewhat compressed, two inches in diameter ; 

 its muscular coat thin, its tendinous spaces about half an inch 

 in diameter. The pylorus has three valvular knobs. The 

 intestine is two feet in length, four-twelfths in width in the 

 duodenal portion, three-twelfths toward the coeca, which are 

 three-twelfths in length, oblong or somewhat tapering; the 

 cloacal dilatation of the rectum globular, an inch and a quarter 

 in width. 



The eyes are large ; the supraocular ridge bare and promi- 

 nent ; the eyelids with short ciliary bristles. The nostrils are 

 round, nearly one-eighth in diameter. The aperture of the 

 ear roundish, rather large. The tarsi are feathered anteriorly 

 more than a third down, rather short, slender, covered with 

 angular scales, of which the anterior are larger, especially a 

 row of nine on the inner side, which are almost scutelliform, 

 and four over the joint, which are true scutella. The toes 

 are of moderate length, rather slender, scutellate above, tuber- 



