( 570 ) 



CLAPPER RAIL OR SALT-WATER MARSH HEN. 



Rallus crepitans, Gmel. 



PLATE CCIV. Vol. III. p. 33. 



Ik an adult male of this species preserved in spirits, the anterior part 

 of the roof of the mouth has a prominent median ridge, and two deep 

 grooves. The tongue is very long, remarkably slender, trigonal, canali- 

 culate, tapering to a bristly point, its base emarginate and papillate, its 

 length 1 inch 11 tvpelfths. The vs^idth of the mouth is only 4 twelfths. 

 The oesophagus, Fig. 1, a 5 c, is 8 inches long, narrow in its upper third, 

 where its width is four twelfths, enlarging a little at the lower part. 

 The breadth of the proventriculus is 9 twelfths. The lobes of the liver 

 are very unequal, the right being 2 inches 10 twelfths, the left 2 inches 

 in length. The stomach, c 6? e, is aremarkablymuscular gizzard of a round- 

 ish form, 1^ inch long, and of about the same breadth ; its lateral mus- 

 cles very prominent, the left large, the inferior muscle well pronounced ; 

 the epithelium dense, hard, of a bright red colour, and forming two ob- 

 long flat grinding plates, with intermediate rugae. The proventricular 

 glands are cylindrical, 1 twelfth in length, forming a belt 9 twelfths in 

 breadth. The contents of the stomach are fragments of small shells. 

 The intestine,/^ h, is 31^ inches long ; its average width 4^ twelfths ; 

 rectum, h c d, Fig. 2, 3 inches long ; coeca, b e, 3| inches in length, their 

 width for an inch and a quarter, 1^ twelfth ; cloaca globular, nearly 1 

 inch in diameter. 



The trachea is 6 inches long, flattened, its breadth at the upper 

 part 4 twelfths, soon diminishing to 3 twelfths, and so remaining to near 

 the end ; the rings ossified, 145 in number ; the last rings contracted to 

 1^ twelfth. Bronchi moderate, the half rings about 20, very slender 

 and cartilaginous. 



The sternum in this, as in the other Rails and Gallinules, has the 

 body extremely narrow, with two very deep and narrow notches at its 

 posterior extremity, the crest moderately elevated, and extending its 

 M'hole length ; the furcula very narrow and slender, the coracoid bones 

 little diverging and of moderate strength. In these respects, the ster- 

 nal apparatus agrees with that of the Gallinules and Coots, and pre- 



