190 MR. A. H.GARROD ON THE [Feb. 1 , 



The disproportionately massive appearance of the legs is also 

 caused by the presence of air beneath the tessellated skin, which 

 extends almost to the ungual phalanges of the toes. 



The contour-feathers, many of them, possess a very feeble after- 

 shaft, especially in the region of the nape, as found by Nitzsch in 

 C. chavaria ; and there is also a slight groove along the posterior 

 surface of the rhachis of each. 



The rectrices are twelve in number. 



There are twenty-six remiges in one of my specimens ; Nitzsch 

 and Sundevall find twenty-seven. Of these ten are primaries, the 

 fourth being the largest. Of the sixteen secondaries the distal twelve 

 are subequal, whilst the proximal four decrease in size as they 

 approach the elbow. 



The tufted oil-gland is not strikingly large ; it is somewhat flat, 

 with a single orifice on each side, surrounded by a circle of half-inch 

 feathers which constitute the tuft. 



The tibio-tarsus is nude for its distal third, being there covered, 

 as over the tarso-metatarse and digits, with small red polygonal 

 scales. 



The plumage is uninterrupted, there being no spaces without 

 contour-feathers except the axillary cavities mentioned by Nitzsch, 

 in which down-feathers only are to be found. The down-feathers 

 are universally distributed. The nude neck-ring of G. chavaria is 

 absent in C. derbiana. The feathers of the humeral tracts are con- 

 siderably the strongest of the contour-feathers. 



Looked at in its entirety the pterylosis of the Screamers is unique, 

 and in no way approaches that of the Anserine birds. 



Alimentary Canal. — The palate is elongate and triangular, with 

 three longitudinal rows of papillae, which are conical, large, and 

 therefore comparatively few in front, smaller and more numerous 

 behind. They all tend somewhat backwards. 



The tongue is just over an inch long, and § of an inch broad, 

 its sides being parallel for nearly their whole length. The tip is 

 obtusely triangular, with a small papillary fringe at its extremity, 

 § of an inch broad. The base is straight, and is edged with spines 

 j'-g- of an inch long, and shorter, directed backwards. The surface 

 and lateral margins are quite smooth, the whole organ being flattened, 

 slightly grooved longitudinally down the centre, and nowhere more 

 than g of an inch thick. At its base are two lateral juxtaposed 

 protuberances, rough on the surface, and together equal in area to 

 one third of its surface. There is no transverse constriction or 

 oblique groove like that found on the surface of the tongue in some 

 Anatidae. 



The oesophagus is uniform in diameter, no crop being even indi- 

 cated ; it is not capacious. 



The proventriculus is peculiar. It is more than usually capacious, 

 and is glandular ordy in a patch which occupies but a small portion 

 of its surface. This patch (which is clearly shown in the represen- 

 tation of this portion of the alimentary canal in Plate XII. fig. I, at 

 its upper end, where the proventricular dilatation ceases) has a 



