Birds. 9445 



suppose that they serve principally as mechanical obstacles to the 

 involuntary return of food that has once passed over them, or to the 

 accidental entrance of food into the glottis during its passage over 

 that orifice to the oesophagus, or perhaps as aids to the introduction 

 of food into the mouth in the first instance, by means of their hook- 

 like points. But in the case of the bustard I find them in large 

 number, largely developed, and mixed up with undoubted papillae of 

 taste ; so that I can hardly avoid the inference that this bird is en- 

 dowed with the sense of taste to a higher degree than other members 

 of its order. The tongue of the bustard presents on either side, 

 arranged along its outer margins, a series of twelve pointed and 

 hardened papillae. The tenth and particularly the eleventh of these 

 papillae are much larger than the rest. They are directed outwards 

 and backwards, and resemble very strongly the pointed papillae to be 

 seen upon the dorsal surface of the tongues of some animals, both 

 carnivorous and herbivorous, as the lion, ox, &c. At its base is a 

 double row of similar but smaller papillae, about fifteen in all, and 

 arranged in the form of the letter V, as it is written, the point of the 

 V being directed forwards. Between these papillae and the glottis is 

 a space studded over with the true papillae of taste. Fringing the lips 

 of the glottis is another row of the pointed and hardened papillae on 

 either side, which terminate in two large papillee or processes. Pos- 

 teriorly to these is an arrangement of similar horny epithelial points 

 or papillae, fringing round and studding over two nearly circular 

 fibrous or cartilaginous surfaces. These papillae are more or less 

 flattened from above downwards, to admit of the food more readily 

 gliding over their superior surfaces. The object of these several 

 papillae or epithelial processes would appear to be chiefly threefold, 

 viz.f 1st, mechanically, to aid the introduction of food into the mouth, 

 and to prevent its involuntary return ; 2ndly, mechanically, to pre- 

 vent food finding admission through the glottis into the windpipe 

 during its passage over it ; 3rdly, it may be, from their numbers, po- 

 sition, form and variety, to endow the bustard with a tnore highly 

 developed sense of taste than other members of its family. Stomach 

 muscular, but less so than in any gallinaceous bird I have dissected. 

 Its internal surface is covered with a thickened and corrugated mu- 

 cous membrane. These corrugations or ridges are arranged in a cir- 

 cular direction around a central, circular, tendonous expansion, from 

 which the muscular walls of the organ contract and exert their 

 squeezing powers during the process of digestion. More correctly, 

 perhaps, should I describe the direction of these ridges were I to say 



