THE GANNET'S ANATOMY 533 



measurements, showing in what relation the Gannet's 

 intestines stand to those of ten other birds. Dr. Chalmers 

 Mitchell* has shown that considerable importance is to be 

 attached to the character of the intestinal convolutions, 

 and that, in this matter, the Gannet agrees more nearly 

 with Phaethon than with the Cormorant, or indeed any 

 other Steganopod. Dr. Mitchell gives a figure of the 

 intestinal tract of Sula bassana, and another of Phalacrocorax 

 carbo in his treatise. The caeca measure '2 inch in the Gannet. 



The caeca in birds have been held to be of great import- 

 ance, in fact, there are some naturalists who would divide 

 the class Aves into those species which have caeca, and 

 those which do not possess them. 



The shortness of these blind-sacs in the Gannet, as com- 

 pared with some birds — the Pehcan, for example — which 

 is somewhat remarkable, was noticed long ago.f 



* On the Intestinal Tract of Birds, with Remarks on the Vahiation and 

 Nomenclature of Zoological Characters. ("Trans. Linn. Soc," 1901, Vol 

 VIII., 2nd Series, p. 190.) 



f Intestinal Worms. — In the supplement to his ' ' Compendium der Hel- 

 minthologie " (1889, p. 56), Otto von Linstow gives the following Tcenioid 

 cestodes, or intestinal worms, as having been found in the Gaiinet : — 

 Ascaris sp. ? Holostomiim erraticum, Dujardin 



Monostomum semifuscum, Olsson. Bothriocephalus fissiceps, Crepl. 

 Hemistomum spataceum. Dies : Tetrabothrium sp. ? 



The above species are confirmed by Mr. A. E. Shipley, who adds (in 

 lilt.) Ascaris spicidigera, Rud. (Schneider, " Monogr. d. Nematod," 1800 

 p. 4"), tab. I., fig. 14). 



