Mr. T. C. Eyt.in's Notes on Birds. 1!) 



Menura Lyra, Shaw. Male. 



Tongue tapering towards the tip, which is slightly bifid, blunt, 

 and furnished with a fringe of bristles ; the centre concave, and fur- 

 nished posteriorlj'^ with two strong spines on each side at the base, 

 between which is a row of smaller ones. 



Trachea of nearly uniform diameter throughout the rings, broad 

 as far as its entrance into the thorax, afterwards rounded and nar- 

 row, with a large membranous space between them ; they are ar- 

 ranged somewhat obliquely, as in the bulb found on the trachea of 

 Clangula vulgaris. Bone of divarication Y-shaped. Upper bones of 

 the bronchire are semicircular, the uppermost largest, the next being 

 inclosed in its arc ; the fourth is much flattened, thickest and broad- 

 est anteriorly, and with a prominent knob on its anterior extremity, 

 from which it gradually tapers towards the posterior end, where it 

 is somewhat falciform and suddenly narrowed to a point. The next, 

 or fifth bone, is also much flattened, and straight for two-thirds of its 

 length, when it also becomes suddenly falciform, with the point of the 

 hook turned downwards. 



In addition to the usual sterno-tracheal muscles, this curious bird 

 has two other pair, both of which have their origin on the rings of 

 the trachea on each side, at the point where it enters the cavity of 

 the thorax. The anterior pair is inserted on the knobs at the extre- 

 mities of the fourth bones of the bronchia; ; the posterior pair are 

 also inserted on the bronchia^, but on the three uppermost rings, and 

 on the posterior extremity of the fifth. Besides these muscles, which 

 are very strong, additional support is given to the portion of the 

 trachea over which they extend, by a tendon arising at the same 

 point with the last-mentioned pair of muscles, but between them, 

 and extending to the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth rings of the 

 iDronchise, on each of which it is partially inserted : this arrangement 

 gives the bird a great power of shortening or lengthening that por- 

 tion of the trachea over which the muscles extend. 



The oesophagus is small at the upper extremity, slightly enlarged 

 in the middle and towards the proventriculus, the coats of which are 

 not much thicker than the oesophagus itself ; nor is it contracted at its 

 entrance into the stomach. The stomach is of moderate size, mus- 

 cular, and has a large internal cavity, which was filled with seeds, 

 the remains of insects and small pebbles. The epithelium, or mem- 

 brane lining the stomach, hardened and rugose, particularly on the 

 grinding surfaces ; it measures If inch in length, and 1 inch in 

 breadth. 



The total length of the intestinal canal, measuring from the py- 

 lorus to the cloaca, is about .3 feet 10 inches, that of the rectum 3|- 

 inches ; the diameter of the duodenum is equal to that of the rec- 

 tum, that of both being f of an inch ; the caeca are scarcely more than 

 rudimentary, measuring only -i an inch in length ; the cloaca is of 

 moderate size, and situated about 1 foot 7 inches above it, and at- 

 tached to the small intestine is found the remains of the vitelline 

 duct {ductus vitello-intestinalis) . 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. vii. E 



