1880.] OF THE STOMACH IN TANAGERS. 145 



pyloric ends of the stomach that obtains in most other birds. 

 There is no trace of any external diverticulum to be seen ; and I 

 therefore can only conclude that Lund must have been misled, he, 

 owing to the bad condition of his specimens (a very probable con- 

 tingency when dissections are made in tropical climates), having mis- 

 taken a bit of fat or connective tissue for a diverticulum of the ven- 

 triculus, which last there can be no doubt that this non-glandular 

 zone really represents, the muscular walls and hard epithelium of the 

 true Passerine gizzard being almost entirely undeveloped \ 



Fig. 2. 



sma 



Stomach of Euphonia violaeea. 



A portion of the alimentary canal of Eup/ionia violaeea, twice the natural size, 

 cut open and seen from behind, to show the proventriculus (p), the narrow 

 zone representing the gizzard (z.), and the commencement of the small in- 

 testine (sm.i). The liver and spleen are also seen, as is the end of the 

 oesophagus, which is opened up. 



I have also been able to ascertain that the nearly allied genus 

 Chlorophonia (at least in C. viridis) is characterized by the same non- 

 development of a gizzard. On the other hand, all Tanagers yet ex- 

 amined belonging to other than these two genera have stomachs 

 constructed on the normal type. Thus in a specimen of Tachyphonm 

 melaleucus (see fig. 1, p. 143) the characteristic gizzard with the two 

 central tendons is present and well developed, the muscular walls being 

 nearly A inch thick, and the epitheUum lining it hard and horny. 

 As might have been expected, considerable variations in the compa- 

 rative development of these parts occur in different genera. Thus in 

 the thick-billed Pitylus the whole organ is much more strongly 



' In confirmation of the above-mentioned view being correct, I may notice 

 that neither Owen (Anat. Vert. ii. p. 106) nor Gadow (Jen. Zeitschr. B. xiii. 

 p. 168, 1879), when mentioning the stomach of Eiiphonia, describe any lateral 

 diverticulum. Prof Garrod, in his MS., notes of Eupkonia violaeea, with charac- 

 teristic terseness, " No stomach specialized, the intestines apparently continuing 

 from the oesophagus." 



10* 



