408 SYRNIA NYCTEA. 



head, six inches in breadth including the feathers, short neck, 

 and strong feet. The bill is stout, with the outline of the up- 

 per mandible curved from the base, its ridge broad, but toward 

 the end narrowed, the sides very convex beyond the cere, the 

 tip acute and decurved ; the lower mandible with the angle 

 wide, the dorsal line convex, the sides rounded, the edges in- 

 flected, with a shallow notch on each side, close to the rounded 

 tip. 



The mouth is two inches in width ; the palate and tongue as 

 described in the generic character ; the latter nearly an inch in 

 length ; the oesophagus nine inches long, and an inch and a 

 quarter in width. The stomach large, roundish, two inches in 

 diameter, with a very thin muscular coat, and a thick, rugous 

 epithelium ; the intestine forty-two inches long, from five to 

 three twelfths in width ; the coeca five inches long, half an 

 inch wide toward the end ; the cloacal dilatation of the rectum 

 globular, and two inches in diameter. The digestive organs of 

 another male have been minutely described and figured in the 

 First Volume, p. 61, PI. V. 



The nostrils are ovate, four and a half twelfths long ; the 

 aperture of the eye eleven twelfths. The external ear is as al- 

 ready described, an inch in length, and about half as broad. 

 The tarsus short ; the toes with two distinct scutella at the end ; 

 the claws long, well curved, slender, tapering to a fine point ; 

 the first and fourth rounded beneath, the second flattened, the 

 third convex, but with an inner sharp edge. 



On the face the feathers are long and slender, with disunited 

 filaments, and the bill is nearly concealed by them. The facial 

 disks are incomplete, not extending above the eye, the feathers 

 there being short ; and the ruff" occupies only a small space on 

 each side. On the upper parts, the feathers are broad, rounded, 

 and somewhat compact ; on the lower ovato-oblong and softer. 

 The wings are long, broad, rounded ; the primary quills broad 

 and rounded ; the outer four deeply sinuate on the inner web, and 

 slightly narrowed on the outer ; the first shorter than the fifth, 

 an inch and a half shorter than the second, and having the tips 

 of its outer filaments free and recurved ; the third longest, be- 

 ing a quarter of an inch longer than the second, and two- 



