GREAT BUSTARD. 447 



before the head was taken off, full seven wine pints, before 

 it ran over. This bag is wanting in the hen." 



My examination of the mature male Bustard sent to me 

 from the Zoological Society's Gardens was confined to the 

 neck only. I very carefully divided the skin, in a straight 

 line from the union of the two branches of the lower man- 

 dible to the angle of the furcular bone or merrythought. 

 On separating the edge of this skin on each side to the 

 right and left, a thin delicate transparent membrane was 

 seen covering, and firmly attached to, the anterior surface 

 of the trachea or windpipe, which lay close to the inner 

 surface of the common skin. Separating the skin still 

 wider, there was on each side of the trachea an elongated 

 narrow column of membrane investing and attached to the 

 blood-vessels and ordinary glands of the neck, and extended 

 downwards was attached to the lateral branch of the furcula 

 on its own side. The oesophagus inclined to the side of 

 the neck in its passage downward. There was no opening 

 under the tongue, and I failed in various attempts to dis- 

 tend any part of the membranes below, either by fiuid or 

 by air. 



I was disappointed, and began to doubt the accuracy of 

 my own investigation, but on turning to the volume con- 

 taining a translation of the anatomical descriptions of the 

 many animals dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 at Paris, published here by an order of the Council of the 

 Royal Society of London, 1702, I found that although 

 the dissections of six Great Bustards, and all of them males , 

 were therein detailed, beginning at page 197, there was no 

 mention of a gular pouch, and the following extracts are 

 in accordance with the observations on the soft parts already 

 described : " The rings of the Aspera arteria (windpipe) 

 were entire. In some of the subjects there was on each 

 side a caruncle or red gland, immediately fastened to the 



