OF GALLINACEOUS BIRDS AND TINAMOUS. 167 



inches, lines. 



Length of colo-rectum and cloaca 5 



Width of former 7 



Width of latter 1 o 



The proventricular glands are small, simple, and ovoidal as in the Rails, and not 

 racemose as in the Fowls and Grouse. The belt of glands is complete. The lining of 

 the gizzard is precisely like that of the Fowl ; and the mucous membrane of the caeca 

 coU is simple, and not raised into strong longitudinal folds as in Lagopus and Syrrhaptes. 

 The gall-bladder is large. 



The trachea is 4 lines wide, flat, and rather feebly ossified ; but the rings are com- 

 plete bone, save at the top, where the bone is in patches, as in the Fowl. There is one 

 pair of inferior laryngeal muscles, as m Pigeons, the Syrrhaptes, Rails, Plovers, and 

 many other birds. These muscles are absent in Ostriches, Fowls, Grouse, and Geese. 



There are no inferior laryngeal muscles in Dendrortyx ; and its cseca coli, which are 

 nearly 5 inches long by one-third of an inch wide, are plicated within, the folds being 

 inosculated as in the typical Fowls, and not continuous as in the Grouse and Sand-grouse. 

 The structure of the viscera of Talegalla conform, on the whole, to those of typical 

 gallinaceous birds ; yet there is a falling-away from the type in the simplicity of the pro- 

 ventricular glands, and an ascent, as it were, from the type in the possession of a more 

 complicated inferior larynx. It is evident that the Talegalla, like the mower and the 

 ploughman, has to labour hard, and yet to content himself with very coarse fare : his 

 digestive organs are evidently competent to deal with almost anything the vegetable 

 kingdom can supply. 



d. The aberrant " Cracines." 



Example 1 : The Globose Curassow ; Crax globicera, Linn. 



These noble birds come much nearer to the highest kinds of the arboreal groups than 

 do the typical " Gallinae," and the skeleton is as perfectly pneumatic as in the Diurnal 

 rapacious birds. The only bones not admitting air are those which lie distad of the 

 elbow- and knee-joints, and also the flat and feeble furculum. There is but little to 

 add to what I have said of the skeleton generally of this bird in the foregoing descrip- 

 tion of the Talegalla. Leaving out the head, the rest of the bird's structure is princi- 

 pally separated from that of the gigantic Turkey and Peafowl by the absence of the 

 spurs and the low position of the heel. The habits of these " Cracinae " show a nearer 

 approach to the typical ornithic groups. There is also nothing in their digestive organs, 

 nor in the structure of their organs of speech, to distinguish them from the giants of 

 the typical subfamily. Outwardly they differ considerably, having lost the typical 

 gaudiness ; yet their dress is, in many cases so rich, even in its neatness, that the 

 absence of bright colouring is scarcely to be considered a loss. Wattles appear again 



VOL. V. PART III. z 



