WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 359 



be broken up into small scales in old age. The above tables will shew 

 what degree of reliance may be placed on a precise number of scutella 

 as a specific character. 



An adult male procured at Boston preserved in spirits. The mouth 

 is 2 inches in width ; the palate rather flat, with two longitudinal pa- 

 pillate ridges, and an anterior median ridge. The posterior aperture 

 of the nares is oblong, with an anterior slit, and two transverse papillate 

 flaps, as in all other birds of this family. The tongue is 1 inch 7 twelfths 

 long, fleshy, deeply emarginate and papillate at the base, one of the 

 lateral papillae on each side large ; a broad groove extends along the 

 middle, the sides are nearly parallel, and the tip is rounded. 



The heart is proportionally large, being 2^ inches in length, and 2 

 in breadth. The two Igbes of the liver are almost exactly equal, the 

 greatest length of that of the left side being 2 inches 7 twelfths. The 

 gall-bladder is elliptical, 1^ inch long. The oesophagus is 11 inches 

 long, its width at the commencement 1 inch 9 twelfths ; it enlarges so 

 as to form a crop, of which the greatest width is 3^ inches, and on en- 

 tering the thorax contracts to 9 twelfths ; the breadth of the proven- 

 triculus, Fig. 1, ab, 1 inch 2 twelfths. The stomach, c d, is of a round- 

 ish form ; its walls so thin as to be almost membranous, and composed 

 of a single series of parallel fasciculi ; the tendons, d, half an inch in 

 breadth. The intestine, e ^, is 9 feet 8 inches long. The duodenum, 

 efff h, which has a diameter of 4 twelfths, in place of cxirving round 

 the stomach, and coming up on the left side, as usual, forms a coil of 

 seven folds, supported by a distinct mesentery, then proceeds forwards, 

 and to the right side, opposite the pylorus, forms another loop, and is 23 

 inches in length. The pancreas, which is double, is only contained in 

 the anterior part of this folded portion, and is 11 inch long. The 

 intestine, ij k I, then having a diameter of 3 twelfths, varying to 2| 

 twelfths, forms twenty-three folds, and ends in the rectum beneath the 

 kidneys. The rectum, Fig. 2, a b, is 5f inches long, and has a 

 diameter of from 8 twelfths to 10 twelfths ; the cloaca c, globular, 2 

 inches in diameter ; the coeca extremely small, being 3i twelfths long, 

 and 1\ twelfth broad. 



The trachea is 10^ inches long, flattened, its breadth from 9 twelfths 

 to 6 twelfths ; its rings, 120 in number, narrow, and partially ossified. 

 The lateral muscles are very large, and continued into the sterno-tra- 

 cheales, sending down also on each side a slip to the first bronchial 



