\fOL. XXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. j^ 



siderable distance, 3 or 4 inches beyond the end of his bill ; and to draw it in 

 again very quick into his mouth or bill, with the caught insect spitted on the 

 tip of it. 



The explanation of the several draughts I made, with what exactness and 

 care I could, in 8 or 10 several subjects, is as follows : — 



Plate 7, fig. 1, represents the head with part of the neck of this bird, the 

 skin being taken off; in which a shows the skull, having two shallow grooves 

 or channels, or rather one broad one with a small rising in the middle, on the 

 sinciput or back part, from each side of the neck to the top of the head, where 

 they unite into one, which passes slanting towards the right side, and ends at 

 the hole for the nostril on that side at c ; b is the hole or passage for hearing; 

 d a large white gland, containing a glutinous liquor, almost like cream as to 

 colour and consistence, which empties itself into the mouth; I suppose to lu- 

 bricate the cartilages ; e the eye, which has a bony ring, encompassing the 

 iris; f part of the tongue, which in this figure is represented as almost all 

 drawn into the mouth, of which more when I come to describe the cartilages, 

 &c. in the 2d fig. ; g part of the neck, which is large, and furnished with very 

 strong muscles ; h the oesophagus, opening very wide at the fauces, and 

 wholly musculous; iii a long, but thin and flat muscle in respect of its 

 breadth, which is about -a- of an inch, reaching from the end of the cartilage 

 at c, to the under bill or beak at k, to the inside of which it is very firmly 

 fastened; as is a similar one on the other side; k the underbill very strong 

 and sharp pointed, articulated with the skull a little behind the ear-hole b ; 

 111 the cartilage on one side; the other being exactly the same. This cartilage 

 is round, very smooth, even and slippery, about the size of a pretty large pin; 

 and reaches, when the tongue is drawn in and the muscle ii relaxed, from the 

 root of the upper beak at c, to the root of the tongue properly so called, or 

 to the bones of the tongue where they are articulated, being bent like a hoop 

 as in the figure, slipping very freely in a sheath or membranous duct fastened 

 on the outer or convex edge of the flat muscle iii, which muscle accompanies 

 it from its end at c, almost to the end of the canal or sheath, which opens at 

 a hole a little before the larynx (as will be shown in the third figure) ; and 

 thence the muscle proceeds to its insertion into the lower beak at k. From 

 the concave edge of this muscle, there is a thin and transparent, but very 

 strong membrane, strained like a drum-head to the skull at m, where it is 

 very strongly fastened; this membrane is furnished with capillary veins and 

 arteries, and doubtless is nervous ; nn represent this membrane. This carti- 

 lage, when the tongue is exerted, parts about half an inch from the root of 

 the beak at c : oo a pretty large vein and artery ; pp a muscle reaching from 



VOL. VI. M M 



