On the Martineta Tinamou. 61 



155. Sterna melanauchen. M. 

 Met with by Dr. Platen only. 



156. Hydrochelidon hybrida. *. 



A winter migrant, arriving in small flocks about the 20th 

 September. 



157. Fregata minor. *. 



Fairly common, frequenting the coast during rough 

 weather. 



VI. — On the Alimentary Canal of the Martineta Tinamou 

 (Calodromas elegans) *. By Frank E. Beddard, M.A., 

 Prosector to the Zoological Society of London, Lecturer 

 on Biology at Guy's Hospital. 



Mr. W. H. Hudson, in a paper upon the habits of certain 

 South-American birds f, makes the following observations 

 upon a remarkable point in the anatomy of the Martineta 

 Tinamou : — " The structure of the intestinal canal in the 

 Martineta [i. e. Calodromas elegans] is most extraordinary, 

 and totally unlike that of any other bird I have ever dis- 

 sected ; the canal divides near the stomach into a pair of 

 great ducts that extend almost the entire length of the 

 abdominal cavity, and are thickly set with rows of large 

 membranous clam-shaped protuberances." 



This passage, as well as a general account of the bird, 

 is repeated in the recently published ' Argentine Orni- 

 thology' of Messrs. Sclater and Hudson, where, however, 

 the wording has been slightly altered, as in the latter work 

 tc claw "-shaped is written instead of e/am-shaped. It is 

 perfectly evident from the quotation that Mr. Hudson had 

 noticed some remarkable divergence from the normal struc- 

 ture of birds in dissecting the " Martineta," but it would be 

 difficult to surmise what this peculiarity is from reading 



* This paper was communicated to the Meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation at Newcastle in September last. 



t " On the Birds of the Rio Negro of Patagonia," P. Z. S. 1872, p. 546. 

 See also Sclater and Hudson, Argent. Orn. ii. p. 214. 



