OF THE SOUTHERN APTERYX. 269 
folds, which are continued, but with gradually diminished breadth, to the end of the 
ileum. The ceca’, at their commencement, are wider than the ileum, and go on slightly 
increasing in capacity to near their blind extremities, where they suddenly taper to an 
obtuse point. The diameter of each cecum, at its widest part, was five lines in the first, 
and six lines in the second dissected Apteryr. To the naked eye the lining membrane 
of the ceca presents a smooth surface; viewed with a lens, it is disposed in very fine 
longitudinal zigzag lines, which are replaced towards the extremities by very minute 
points. The lining membrane of the rectum is beset with minute short villi or points, 
together with glandule solitarie, which become numerous and large at the terminal half 
of the rectum’: the lining membrane of this intestine, when it is contracted, is thrown 
into longitudinal folds ; but there is no trace of the transverse or spiral valvule conni- 
ventes which so peculiarly characterize the ceca and rectum of the Ostrich and Rhea: in 
this respect the Apteryx resembles the Cassowary and Emeu. The rectum communicates 
with the uro-genital dilatation by a small semilunar aperture, which, when contracted, 
appears as an oblique fissure, and from the produced valvular margin of which several 
short rug radiate. The urinary compartment of the cloaca is not expanded into a large 
receptacle as in the Ostrich, but offers the same proportional size as in the Emeu and 
Cassowary: it measures about two-thirds of an inch in length and the same in diameter. 
The ureters terminate by oblique valvular apertures* immediately beyond the above- 
mentioned membranous fold, at the back part of the cavity, and about two lines apart. 
The vasa deferentia terminate, as in other Struthious birds, by two elongated papille* 
nearer the anterior part of the uro-genital cavity. This cavity is separated from the 
external compartment of the cloaca by a broader and stronger fold than that which 
divides it from the rectum, and the angles of this fold are lost upon the sides of the penis‘, 
which projects into the external compartment of the cloaca. This compartment is con- 
tinued behind the uro-genital passage in the form of a large and wide bursa Fabricii®, 
which, in the larger Apteryx dissected by me, was partly divided by a crescentic verti- 
cal fold, extending forwards from its upper and back part. 
The stomach, in Lord Derby’s Apteryz, contained only a greenish-yellow pulpy sub- 
stance, and numerous filamentary bodies, amongst which were some legs of insects and 
a few pebbles. ‘The small intestines were contracted and contained only a little pulpy 
material like that in the gizzard, but of a darker colour. The ceca were distended with 
a greater quantity of a similar but more fluid matter, in which parts of the legs of in- 
sects, apparently orthopterous, were again discernible. In the male Apteryx transmitted 
by Mr. Bennett, the stomach was distended with insects of various orders, which seemed 
to have been recently swallowed. There were four larve, between two and three inches 
in length, belonging to some species of the Lepidopterous order, probably of subterraneous 
habits ; five larve of some of the Scarabeide, perfect ; some mature Coleoptera ; parts of 
1 Pl. Lie, €. PLL Sf Pl Ligs 
+ PLL. A, CN 2) oe PR ® Pl. Ii ki 
