576 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. 



connected by skin so as to render the gape-line very short. The pa- 

 late is very narrow, flattened, with two longitudinal ridges, and ante- 

 riorly with a few large papillae placed in a double series. The upper 

 mandible is moderately, the lower deeply concave. The tongue is 9 

 twelfths long, very narrow, involute, and deeply channelled above, its 

 base emarginate and papillate, the tip narrow and entire. Posterior 

 aperture of nares linear, with the margins papillate. (Esophagus 4 in- 

 ches long, without dilatation, narrow, its greatest width being 3 twelfths. 

 Proventriculus bulbiform, 4 twelfths in breadth. Stomach a rather small 

 gizzard, of an elliptical form, moderately compressed, 10 twelfths long, 

 9 twelfths in breadth ; its lateral muscles large, as are the tendons ; the 

 inferior muscle prominent ; the epithelium thick, with strong longitu- 

 dinal rugas, which are impressed on the muscular coat. The proventri- 

 cular glandules are small, and very numerous, forming a belt 7 twelfths 

 in breadth. The intestine is long and narrow ; its length 19 inches, its 

 average width 2 twelfths, a little wider toward the rectum ; coeca 1 inch 

 9 twelfths long, cylindrical, ^^ in breadth, but for half an inch at the 

 commencement only 4 twelfth ; the rectum 1^ inch long, its greatest 

 breadth 3^ twelfths, there being no cloaca. 



Trachea 2 inches 10 twelfths long, 2 twelfths broad, much flatten- 

 ed ; its rings cartilaginous, very narrow, 120 in number, with 2 dimi- 

 diate rings. Bronchial half rings about 20. The lateral muscles thin ; 

 the sterno-tracheal slender ; a single pair of inferior laryngeal muscles. 



