MERLIN. 211 



angle ; the tip sharp-edged, and rather flattened, its 

 lower part perpendicular. The cere is short, its mar- 

 gin forming a convex cm*ve before the nostrils, below 

 which it is concave, and slopes towards the angle of the 

 mouth. The lower mandible has the angle very broad 

 and short, the dorsal line convex, the back broad and 

 rounded, the sides convex, the sharp edges inflected, 

 the tip directly truncate, with a semicircular notch on 

 each side behind it. 



The upper mandible within has a strong central 

 ridge ; the lower, which is deeply concave, a smaller 

 elevated central line. On the palate are two promi- 

 nent lines, having on their ridge numerous minute pa- 

 pillae, and two smaller diverging lateral lines destitute 

 of papillae. The palatal slit is narrow-oblong behind, 

 linear before, laterally with two curved papillate lines 

 on each side, the anterior of which is continuous with 

 the palatal ridge. The tongue, which is sagittate and 

 papillate at the base, is fleshy, oblong, channelled above, 

 the tip rounded and emarginate, its lower surface hor- 

 ny, with a central groove. The oesophagus, which is 

 four inches and a quarter in length, is dilated at the 

 distance of an inch from its upper end into a kind of 

 crop, rather more than an inch in length, and lying on 

 the right side of the trachea. It then contracts to its 

 original size, but at its lower part is again enlarged in- 

 to a proventriculus, of which the walls are very thick, 

 studded with cylindrical glandules, and presenting in- 

 ternally the appearance of a pulpy mass, divided longi- 

 tudinally by six shallow grooves. This part is three- 

 fourths of an inch in length. The mucous coat of the 

 membranous part of the oesophagus is disposed in Ion. 



