( 641 ) 



SOOTY TERN. 



Sterna fuliginosa, Lath. 



PLATE CCXXXV. Vol. III. p. 263. 



Female. The mouth is formed as in the Cayenne Tern ; its width 

 8^ twelfths. Tongue 1 inch 4 twelfths long, emarginate and papillate 

 at the base, very slender, channelled above, horny beneath, tapering to 

 a point. (Esophagus 6| inches long, 1 inch wide at the commencement, 

 9 twelfths along the neck, but within the thorax dilated into an enor- 

 mous sac 1 inch 9 twelfths in width. Stomach exceedingly small, being 

 only lOi twelfths long, 7 twelfths broad ; its muscles very thin, the 

 epithelium strong, longitudinally rugous, and of a bright red colour. 

 The belt of the proventricular glands only 3 twelfths in breadth. 

 The walls of the oesophagus are extremely thin, so as to be membra- 

 nous and transparent. Lobes of liver 1 inch 9 twelfths, and 1 inch 

 2 twelfths long ; gall-bladder i inch long, 3 twelfths broad. Intestine 

 15 inches long, 3 twelfths broad at the commencement, diminishing to 

 2 twelfths ; cceca 1 inch 2 twelfths long, their greatest width 1\ twelfth, 

 at the base only | twelfth ; in form and proportion they are thus like 

 those of the genus Lestris ; their distance from the extremity 2 inches, 

 cloaca globular, 9 twelfths in diameter. 



Trachea 4 inches long, from 2| twelfths to 1^ twelfth in breadth, 

 roimdish, the rings 95, unossified. Bronchi very wide, of 28 rings. 

 Muscles as in the other species. 



vol.. V, 



s s 



