Miscellaneous. 478 



referred to w ill prove that my recollection is right. At any rate 

 the moxmting referred to agrees absolutely with the specimen here 

 described from Polpcrro as C. Montayui (A). 



On the Salivary Apparatus of Birds. By Dr. A.-H. Pilliet. 



The system of salivary glands appears to be somewhat slightly 

 developed in birds, aud there scarcely exist any comprehensive . 

 memoirs upon the subject. 



This is due to the difficulty of isolating very small groups of 

 glands buried beneath corneous membranes, of which the dr}' and 

 apparently unlubricated surface negatives the very idea of a 

 salivary secretion. Milne-Edwards barely devotes a few lines to 

 the matter ; these excretory organs, he states, have but little 

 importance, and are only Aery im])erfectly known. The fact is that 

 Duvernoy, Meckel, Miiller, Sebold, Stannius, Chauvcau, and 

 Wiedershcira have only described glands large enough to be isolated 

 by the scalpel — such as the sub-lingual gland of the goose, the 

 palatine glands of the ostrich ; the groups of glands of the wood- 

 pecker, the parrots, and the climbers ; and even the descriptions of 

 these authors convey the impression of isolated and not coordinated 

 facts. Prof. Ranvier in his course of lectures for 1883 * returned 

 to the study of these glands, and gave a general description of them, 

 while insisting that the classifications of the old anatomists were 

 fallacious as a natural consequence of their method. As as matter 

 of fact, by analogy with higher animals, parotid, sub-lingual, and 

 submaxillary glands were described in the comparative anatomy of 

 birds. Now, the morphological type represented by the bird, which 

 is veiT far removed from tliat of mammals, on the contrary greatly 

 resembles that of the Sauriaus and Chelonians : and it is with the 

 members of the latter groups, in which the glands of the mouth and 

 pharynx locate themselves where they can. and are spread out and 

 hidden beneath a more or loss rigid mucous membrane, that the 

 bird must be compared. 



We have studied the salivary glands of birds with respect both 

 to their situation and their structure. The method of examinalion 

 was as follows : the head was fixed by means of a preservative fluid, 

 decalcified with picric acid supplemented with formic acid, hardened, 

 and cut into slices. These successive manipulations arc not without 

 detriment to the study of the cellular substance, but they are of 

 great service in enabling us to make out the situation of the groups 

 of glands ; and sections made from strips of excised mucous mem- 

 brane have rendered it possiljle for us to give ])recision to the typo- 

 graphical information afforded by the broad slices. 



I. Akkangemknt ov the Gianj)s. — a. The upper jaio. — In the 

 duck the glands form very abundant groups in the up])er jaw, 

 especially at its centre. They do not exist at the base, and iho 



* L. Riinvier, Joiiniul dc .Mirrogiapliic, 1884, \). 14(J. 



