112 Mr. A. Newton on the supposed Gular Pouch 



very much like making the giants first, and then killing them." 

 In 1810, Tiedemann (Zoologie, ii. p. 398) repeats much that had 

 been previously written on the question ; and though he refers to 

 Seeligmann's account, yet, as he carefully follows Bloch's acci- 

 dental errors, his acquaintance with the former author was clearly 

 derived only at second hand : I therefore forbear to quote what 

 he says. In 1814, Sir Everard Home (Lectures on Comparative 

 Anatomy, i. pp. 277-8) states that — 



"The male bustard, in some particular species which I have 

 examined, has a long bag which hangs down on the anterior part 

 of the oesophagous as low as the middle of the neck, communi- 

 cating with the mouth by an opening under the tongue, which 

 appears to have a sphincter muscle. This bag was not met with 

 in the young bustard, and is unknown to several very intelligent 

 naturalists in Bengal, where the bustard is common and of seve- 

 ral species." 



Now this passage is not marked by that precision one could 

 wish, and, from its similarity to an observation of John Hun- 

 ter's, then unpublished, but which, as I shall presently show, 

 was in all probability known to Sir Everard, leaves it open to 

 doubt whether that noted plagiarist ever did examine a male 

 Great Bustard for himself. In 1818, Vieillot (Nouv. Diet. 

 d'Hist. Nat. &c. xxiv. p. 286), from the accounts of Perrault and 

 Pallas, already given, compiled a description of the tongue, palate, 

 and pouch of the Otis tarda. It contains no new facts, and I 

 need not cite it here. 



In the course of the ten years following 1821 appeared the 

 great work of Meckel (System der vergleichenden Anatomic), of 

 which, I regret to say, I have only been able to consult a French 

 translation, though it is one which was published in 1838, by 

 Drs. Sanson and Schuster, with the author's approval. In this 

 (Traite General d'Anat. Comp. viii. p. 236) Meckel is repre- 

 sented as saying : — 



" Chez le male, on voit descendre de la face inferieure, au- 

 devant de la langue, un sac fort spacieux et h. parois minces, 

 qui, place immediatement au-dessous de la peau, occupe toute 

 la longueur du cou, et dont la cavite presente, chez les adultes, 

 assez d'ampleur pour contenir deux litres d'eau. Selon MM. 



