1896.] 



INTESTINAL TRACT OF BIBBS. 



157 



type. The wide gut is very short : the Golies, for instance, have 

 shortest guts of any birds that I have examined ; but the same 

 general features are present in all. lihylidoceros plicatus, for 

 instance (fig. 23), shows the duodenum as a very wide irregular 



Fig. 23. 



Bhytidoceros plicattes ; intestinal tract. 



loop, with a pucker at its closed end. The circular part of the gut 

 is thrown into three simple subsidiary folds. The first of these 

 corresponds to that present in most Owls, but absent in the Eagle- 

 Owl ; the second bears the yolk-sac vestige at its extremity, and 

 the third corresponds to the part along which the lost coBca 

 lay. The rectum is straight. The veins are in the typical form, 

 and I have not found any short-circuiting veins. 



In the Woodpeckers (Oedntts) and Toucans (RJiamphastos) the 

 duodenum is equally wide : the three loops of the mid-gut are 

 present with the yolk-sac vestige on the median loop ; but all three 

 loops are much wider and shallower than in the Hornbill. The 



rig. 24. 



Colius capensis ; intestinal tract. 



