Page 156. 
Page 297. 
284 ON THE TRACHEA 
box (see figs. 6 and 7) is constructed on the same type as in Fuligula 
rufma and fF. ferina, being mostly composed of membrane, with an 
intersecting, oblique, simple osseous bar running across near the 
upper margin of its outer side. There is also some dilatation of the 
consolidated rings which go to form the lower portion of the trachea; 
this is to be observed on both the right and left sides, the box being 
connected with the latter only. In the female no box is developed. 
The trachea narrows slightly above the syringeal box. 
The cwca in this specimen were 5} and 6 inches in length, the 
whole intestinal canal measuring 44 feet. 
45, ON THE FORM OF THE TRACHEA IN CERTAIN | 
SPECIES OF STORKS AND SPOONBILLS.* 
No account of the peculiarities of the windpipe in Tantalus ibis and 
in Platalea ajaja has yet, to the best of my knowledge, appeared in 
print. They cannot but interest ornithologists; I therefore append 
descriptions of them from specimens which have passed through my 
hands as Prosector to the Society. 
In the Transactions of the Linnean Societyt there is a paper by 
Mr. Joshua Brookes, F.R.S., ‘On the remarkable Formation of the 
Trachea in the Egyptian Tantalus.” The author does not mention 
the sex of his specimen, and does not refer to the existence of any 
intrathoracic or any other loops; he draws attention only to the 
existence of a lateral compression of the portion of the trachea which 
is contained within the thorax; and he incidentally refers to the 
similarity of the arrangement of the windpipe in the Spoonbill and 
Tantalus ibis, but does not hint at the points in which they agree. 
In most species of Ciconiide the only peculiarity of the windpipe 
is that the bronchi are longer than in other birds, the bifurcation of 
the trachea occurring at, or even a little above, the superior aperture 
of the thorax. This condition I have observed in the female Oiconia 
boyciana which died on January 15th, 1874, as well as in examples of 
C. maguarit and C. alba. In the male of C. nigra the bronchi are 
known to be peculiarly long,t and to form an m-shaped curve enter- 
* “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1875, pp. 297-3801. Read, April 6, 
1875. 
+ Vol. xvi. p. 499. 
t{ “ Naumann’s Naturgeschichte der Vogel Deutschlands,” vol. ix. p. 229. 
