448 STRUTHIONIDJE. 



Aspera arteria and to the carotids. In the palate and 

 lower part of the beak there was, under the membrane 

 which covers these parts, several glandular bodies which 

 did open into the cavity of the mouth by several very 

 visible tubes." 



Cuvier, in his Lemons d'Anatomie Comparee, 1799, 

 dwells at some length on the blood-vessels, glands, and 

 cellular tissue, of the neck in birds, but he does not refer 

 to any peculiarity in the neck of the Great Bustard. 



Unwilling, however, to offer my statement without con- 

 sulting the best living authority in this country, namely, 

 Professor Owen, I mentioned the subject to him, and had the 

 satisfaction to find that Mr. Owen agreed with me entirely 

 that there is in the Great Bustard neither an orifice under 

 the tongue, nor a gular pouch ; and he had the kindness to 

 send me a written note in confirmation. " The following 

 was the result of my dissection of a full-grown Bustard, 

 with the view of obtaining a preparation of the alleged 

 gular pouch for the Physiological Series : No. 772 Q. 

 The head of a Bustard, Otis tarda, with the mouth and 

 fauces exposed, showing the glandular orifices between the 

 rami of the lower jaw, the tongue, glottis, internal nostril, 

 and Eustachian orifice. There is no trace of a gular 

 pouch." The preparation has this description in the Mu- 

 seum Gallery Catalogue. 



I am therefore disposed to consider that Dr. Douglas 

 was mistaken as to the species of bird examined ; and 

 that the summer seasonal enlargement of the glands and 

 cellular structure in the neck of the Great Bustard, ac- 

 companied as it is by the assumption of certain elongated 

 feathers called the beard, and a stripe of naked blue skin 

 on each side of the neck, is analogous to the excess of 

 colour observed on the naked parts of the head and neck 

 in our Turkey cock in spring, and to the increase in the 



