ROUGH LEGGED FALCON. 



225 



behind into two ridges, corresponding with the edges of the tongue. 

 The posterior aperture of the nares is oblong, with an anterior linear 

 slit, which is papillate on the mar- 

 gin. Tongue 10 twelfths long, 

 fleshy, sagittate and papillate at the 

 base, concave above ; the sides 

 nearly parallel, the tip rounded, the 

 lower surface horny toward the end. 

 The mouth is very wide, measiu-ing 

 IJ inch across. The oesophagus, 

 bcdef, which is Q\ inches long, has a 

 width of one inch at the upper part, 

 but is presently expanded to form 

 an enormous crop, c <?, 3 inches in 

 length, and 2 inches 8 twelfths in 

 breadth ; it then contracts on en- 

 tering the thorax to 10 twelfths, 

 and in the proventricular portion 

 enlarges to 1^ inch. The walls of 

 the oesophagus are extremely thin, 

 but still with distinct transverse and 

 longitudinal fibres. The stomach, 

 gh, is a very large sac, of a round- 

 ish, somewhat compressed form, 

 2^ inches long, 2\ in breadth, its 

 muscular coat thin, compressed, of 

 a single series of fasciculi converg- 

 ing toward two roundish tendons, 

 which have a diameter of 8 twelfths. 

 In the crop are the different por 

 tions of three arvicolse, which had 

 been swallowed in fragments, in- 

 cluding the skulls and members, with the hair. The stomach is cram- 

 med with five arvicolae, apparently of the same species, all fresh or newly 

 killed, the entire length of one of which, judging from the skull and 

 vertebrae remaining, is 7 inches, of which the tail measures 1 inch 8 

 twelfths. Appended to the stomach is a great mass ot fat, which ex- 

 tends over the whole surface of the abdomen. The pylorus is furnished 



VOL. V. p 



