OF THE KAGU, SUN-BITTERN, AND BOATBILL. 489 
raised, ring-like pyloric orifice (py). They are entirely absent in the Sun-bittern, which 
otherwise resembles the above form. The epithelial lining or inner coat of the gizzard 
is pale-coloured, horny, but not by any means so hard and coriaceous as in some birds. 
The proventriculus of Cancroma (Pr, Pl. LVI. fig. 20) differs from the Kagu’s, and still 
more from that of Ewrypyga, in possessing considerable enlargement, and in being both 
relatively and absolutely larger than the corresponding cavity of the gizzard (Gz) when 
in its contracted condition. Both digestive organs in all three birds agree in the fleshy 
nature of their walls and in the limited size of the central tendon of the gizzard. 
The intestines of the Kagu, upon leaving the gizzard, form a loop of 2°3 inches, wherein 
lies a rather large, double pancreas (Pl. LVII. fig. 14, P', P®); beyond are several intes- 
tinal coils, with an average diameter of 0-3 inch. Previously to the gut constituting the 
great intestine it narrows by half, then suddenly widens into the latter as a horseshoe- 
shaped dilatation (fig. 16), the backward prongs of which are cecal appendages (Cw). The 
expansion spoken of has a breadth of 0-9 inch, and is continuous with each wedge-like 
but blunt-pointed cecum. The latter are unequal in size, the right one (77) being rather 
the larger. It is half an inch long from where it is in contact with the small intestine, 
but may be reckoned 1-2 inch in extreme length, or from tip to the curve of the horse- 
shoe-figured enlargement. The rectum is lopsided, inasmuch as it springs from the 
left moiety of the ileo-cecal swelling; it is three inches long, and quite half an inch in 
diameter. 
The most notable difference in the Sun-bittern’s intestinal tract, besides shortness and 
relative smallness of calibre, is the diminutive size of the czca (see fig. 18). These are 
free no more than 0-2 inch, correspondingly narrow, and without the basal enlargement 
or swelling at the ileo-cecal junction which obtains in the Kagu. 
In the Boatbill (Pl. LVII. fig. 20) the duodenal loop is 3 inches; the cecum single, a 
mere nipple-like projection, 0-1"; and the commencement of the great intestine some- 
what cylindrically swollen. 
I further observed in the specimen examined, and about the middle of the intestines, 
a small diverticulum equivalent to or slightly larger in size than the cecal appendage. 
This sacculus (v, fig. 20) appeared to represent or be the remnant of the vitelline sac of 
ovo-feetal life, although, as far as likeness was concerned, it might have been taken for 
a second cecal appendage. A relic of developmental structure, this process has not 
the zoological importance of the ceca coli, having been found in several of the Gralla 
(Rallus', Psophia, and others). Owen mentions’ meeting with it in the Gallinule half 
an inch long, and in the Bay-Ibis (Jéis falcinellus) an inch in length. But the 
Apteryx*® &c. also possess it. 
As regards the thickish ovate ma partly bilobed liver, it is nearly identical in 
1 Meckel, Anat. Comp. t. viii. p. 233, note by Dr. Schuster. 
2 Aves, Cyclop. of Anat. and Physiol. vol. i. p. 323. 
3 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. p. 268. 
VOL, VIIL—PART vI. June, 1871. By 
