Birds. 9443 



the secret of its having been withheld in the first instance, viz., dis- 

 emboweled, and trussed for cooking after the most orthodox fashion. 

 The heart, liver and stomach were the only viscera remaining, and 

 these had been detached from their positions and cleansed. The 

 stomach had been emptied of its contents : even the sexual organs 

 and kidneys had been cut away, so that the only indications of sex 

 remaining were the comparative weight and the plumage. Judging 

 by these alone, 1 have little doubt that my specimen is a female of 

 the second or third year. Her weight — thirteen pounds — is con- 

 siderably more than that of birds of the year, viz., seven to eight 

 pounds ; and the peculiarly slaty gray of the head and neck, and the 

 absence of the lateral plumes from the chin, would indicate the female 

 sex and imperfect maturity, as the female bustard does not assume 

 these elongated feathers on the chin until the third or fourth year 

 (see Yarrell, ii. 451 ; Morris, iv. 6). The plumage of my bird is very 

 fine, not a feather having been lost. It must have fallen exhausted 

 into the water, or dropped from fear of some threatening hawk, of 

 which the bustard entertains a peculiar dread. I am inclined to 

 adopt the latter supposition, as the body is in excellent condition, 

 and does not present the slightest evidence of exhaustion or starva- 

 tion, weighing, when minus head, neck, skin and feathers, legs, wings 

 and viscera, rather more than seven pounds. Unable to rise again, it 

 had drowned, and must have been picked up very shortly after death, 

 as it was still quite warm when found, and did not appear to have 

 been many hours dead when I received it. I could find no trace of 

 internal injury or disease on subsequent dissection. Measurements: 

 — Total length from tip of bill to tip of tail, 3 feet 3 inches; height, 

 as the bird stands with head and neck slightly bent, from crown of 

 head to sole of foot, 2 feet 5^ inches; from anterior bend of wing to 

 end of longest primary, 1 foot llg^ inches (nearly) ; across wings I most 

 unfortunately missed, as Mr. Richardson had got the bird set up before 

 I called to obtain the measurements. Dissection : — As I have before 

 said, the body, or rather what was left of it, was in excellent con- 

 dition. The heart and liver were perfectly healthy, and seemed to 

 me large in proportion to the size of the bird ; otherwise they do not 

 demand special notice. The tongue, on the other hand, presented 

 peculiarities which I think are deserving of comment. Like the 

 tongues of other gallinaceous birds, it was rather a fibro-cartilaginous 

 expansion — narrow from side to side and pointed at the tip, and 

 covered with a thickened, hardened epithelium — than the more 

 highly-developed type of the same organ, as we find it in the parrot 



