346 ON THE ANATOMY OF PLOTUS LEVAILLANTI. 
sternum (s¢.) is superficially bound to the lower end of the coracoid bone 
by the: anterior sterno-coracoid ligament (ant. st. cor, lig), which is par- 
ticularly powerful in the Steganopods and Storks. 
Prate 20. (XXVIII) 
Fig. 1. View of top of head of Plotus anhinga, showing the occipital style (a) and 
the temporal muscle (£) arising from it on one side. 
2. Stomach of Plotus anhinga, inside view. 
3. Anterior view of the lower end of the trachea in Plotus anhinga, 
4. The same in Sula bassana. 
5 and 6. Top and side view of the patella in Phalacrocorax carbo, showing the 
canal for the ambiens muscle. V.B. The side view (fig. 6) is accidentally 
drawn with the base uppermost. 
7. Front of patella in Plotus anhinga deeply grooved by ambiens muscle. 
55. NOTE ON POINTS IN THE ANATOMY OF LEVAIL- 
LANT’S DARTER (PLOTUS LEVAILLANT]I).* 
Page 679. 1N a former communicationt I had the opportunity of bringing 
before the Society several facts with reference to the anatomy of 
Plotus anhinga, and of confirming Mr. Macgillivray’s account of its 
most peculiar proventriculus. Several specimens of the species have 
since passed through my hands which differ in no way from that first 
described. 
On the 9th of March last the Society obtained for the first time, 
by purchase, a male specimen of Leyaillant’s Darter (Plotus levail- 
lanti) from Senegal. It unfortunately died on the 7th of this month 
(May) from peritonitis, the result of a perforating ulcer in the 
stomach. 
The severity of the peritonitis caused all the abdominal viscera to 
be agglutinated into a single mass, and rendered them particularly 
soft. Nevertheless I was able to disentangle most of the alimentary 
canal for examination; and it has proved of more than ordinary in- 
terest, as the following description will serve to show. 
The tongue, as a free organ, is obsolete. The cesophagus is capa- 
cious, without any crop. The cesophageal epithelium ceases abruptly 
by a transverse line where the gastric portion of the canal commences, 
below which it is replaced by the tough yellow epithelium so charac- 
teristic of the situation. 
* “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1878, pp. 679-81. Read, June 18, 
1878. 
t “Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1876, p. 335,  (Suprd.) 
