LONG-EARED OWL. 577 
The intestine is 23 inches long, its smallest diameter only 1 twelfth. 
The ceca, Fig. 2, are in this individual unequal, as they very frequently 
are in Owls; the largest being 2 inches 10 twelfths in length, their 
greatest diameter 54 twelfths, their distance from the anus 3 inches 
and a quarter. The cloaca is of an enormous size, ovate, 2 inches 
long, 1 inch 2 twelfths broad. It contains a calculous concretion 9 
twelfths long, 7 twelfths broad, and 3 twelfths thick. 
The trachea, which is 3 inches long, is 3} twelfths in breadth at 
the upper part, 24 twelfths in the middle, and 3 twelfths at its lower 
extremity ; its rings about 75 in number, cartilaginous, and consider- 
ably flattened. The lateral muscles are strong, the sterno-tracheal 
moderate, and there is a single pair of very slender inferior laryngeal 
muscles. Five of the lower rings are elongated, arched, and slit. The 
bronchi are rather long, of 12 half rings. 
The conch of the ear, Fig. 1, is of enormous size, extending from the 
level of the forehead over the eye to the chin, in a semilunar form, of 
which the posterior curve is 3 inches, and the distance between the two 
extremities in a direct line 1 inch and a half. There is an anterior se- 
micircular flap in its whole length, 5 twelfths in breadth at the middle. 
The aperture or meatus externus is of a rhomboidal form 44 twelfths 
in length, 33 twelfths broad, bounded ‘anteriorly by the eye, posteriorly 
by a ligament extended along the edge of the occipital bone, above by 
a ligament stretching to the operculum, below the articulation of the 
lower jaw. Above the meatus is a deep depression covered with skin, 
above which another ligament stretches across to the operculum. 
In another specimen, a female, the cesophagus is 54 inches long, 
its average diameter 11 twelfths. The intestine is 21 inches long, 
from 23 twelfths to 1 twelfth in diameter ; the cceca are 2} inches in 
length ; their greatest diameter 4 twelfths; the cloaca still larger than 
that of the other individuals, being 2 inches long. 
VOL. LV. oo 
