( 438 ) 



MOCKING BIRD. 



TURDUS POLYGLOTTUS, LiNN. 



PLATE XXI. Vol. I. p. 108. 



In an adult male of this celebrated bird, the roof the mouth is flat, 

 with two narrow longitudinal palatal ridges, and an anterior median 

 prominent line ; the posterior aperture of the nares is oblongo-linear, 

 margined with acute papillae, with which 

 also the whole membrane of the palate is 

 covered. The tongue is slender, 7 twelfths 

 long, emarginate and papillate at the 

 base, channelled above, horny and thin 

 toward the end, which is slit and lace- 

 rated. The width of the mouth is 6 

 twelfths. The oesophagus, a be, in 3 inches 

 long, and of the nearly uniform width 

 of 4^ twelfths, unless at the commence- 

 ment where it is a little wider. The 

 proventricular glands form a belt 5 

 twelfths of an inch in breadth. The sto- 

 mach, cde, is rather small, broadly ellipti- 

 cal, 9 twelfths long, 7^ twelfths broad, con- 

 siderably compressed ; its muscular coat -^ 

 moderately developed, the right muscle y 

 being li twelfth thick, the left 1 twelfth ; 

 the epithelium dense, tough, reddish- 

 brown, with seven longitudinal rugae on 

 one side and three on the other. The 

 intestine, ef^h ijk, is of moderate length 

 and width ; the duodenum, efg, curves 

 at the distance of 1;^ inch, and is 3 twelfths 

 wide, as is the rest of the intestine, of 

 which the entire length is 9| inches ; the 

 cloaca, k, very little enlarged ; the coeca, i, 2 twelfths long, and 

 ^ twelfth broad, their distance from the extremity 8 twelfths. 



