ALIMENTARY TRACT OF CERTAIN BIRDS. 



57 



t\ not very long ileo-duodeiial ligament. In Eupsychoriyx sonnini * 

 the intestine is shorter, but its arrangement is precisely that of 



Text fijr. 13. 



Iiitestinul tract. of Eiiplocaiiius iu/cthemerus, sliowiiig- condition reversed 

 from tlie normal. Lettering as in text-figs. 9 & 11. 



* The c8Bca of TSiipKychortt/x sonnini are remarkable in more tlian one svay. When 

 the body is opened these tubes are seen to lie in a tightly closed spiral' or rather 

 helicoid, producing at first the idea that it is the gut itself which is thus coiled. 

 The spiral coiling of the cfeca is not, however, permanent ; they can be uncoiled and 

 straightened with the exception of the verj- tip which remains coiled. Each csecum 

 moreover, is seen to be covered with a network of bands in which a great deal of fat 

 is laid down, and which forms a loosely meshed network with the long axis of the 

 interstices corresponding to the long axis of the caecum. Blood-vessels traverse the 

 strands and apparently form a corresponding network. I am disposed to compare 

 this with the mass of short tubular blind outgrowths from the cKca in the Tinamou, 

 Calodromas C Ibis,' 1890, p. 61). A slight tightening of the bands referred to in 

 Ezcpsj/cJwrii/a- would cause a bulging of the interstitial tracts and the consequent 

 formation of such diverticula. 



