146 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



relations of the ciliary ganglion in the group of birds will now be sum- 

 rnarizfid. 



Connection with the Oculomotor Nerve. A radix brevis is present iu 

 Strix flammea, in various species of the genus Corvus, in Falco tinnun- 

 culus and Sterna hirundo. The ciliary ganglion is placed directly on the 

 trunk of the third nerve in the goose, Falco palumbarius, Aquila ieuco- 

 cephala, Meleagris gallopavo, Ardea cinerea, Vanellus cristatus and Gal- 

 linula pusilla (Gadow und Selenka, '91). To this list should be added 

 Gallus doinesticus, the pigeon and the duck (Holtzmann, '96). 



Connection with the Ophthalmic Branch of the Trigeminal Nerve. 

 Sohwalbe ('79) describes a large ciliary nerve passing cephalad from the 

 distal extremity of the ciliary ganglion of the goose. This nerve re- 

 ceives, a short distance from its origin from the ganglion, a slender 

 ramus from the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminus, but no direct fibrous 

 connection appears to exist between the last-named nerve and the gan- 

 glion. The same conditions were observed by Holtzmann ('96) in the 

 hen, duck and pigeon, as well as in the goose. Schwalbe concluded from 

 the appearances that no long root could be said to be present in birds, 

 but Holtzmann has ascertained by microscopical examination that in the 

 hen and goose (the only forms examined in this way) about one-fourth 

 of the neuraxons of the communicating branch from the fifth nerve turn 

 centrad, and, running parallel with those of the ciliary nerve, enter the 

 ganglion. This connection he believes to be a survival of an embryonic 

 union between the fundaments of the ciliary and Gasserian ganglia, and 

 to possess a developmental rather than a physiological significance. 



A few cases of direct connection between the fifth nerve and the cil- 

 iary ganglion have been recorded. Jegorow ('86-87) asserts that such 

 a condition obtains in the pigeon and vultjire. In Bronn's Thierreich, 

 Muck ('15) is cited as authority for the statement tliat in several birds 

 the communicating branch enters the anterior part of the ganglion. 

 Bonsdorff ('52) describes for the crane two rami from the trigeminus 

 which have the typical relations of long roots of the ganglion. 



Connection mth the Sympathetic System. Neither Schwalbe ('79), 

 Holtzmann ('96) nor the older investigators discovered any evidence of 

 a connection between the sympathetic system and the ciliary ganglion in 

 birds. Jegorow ('86-87), while admitting that the distribution of sym- 

 pathetic fibres has not been proved anatomically, infers, nevertheless, 

 the presence of sympathetic neuraxons in the ciliary ganglion from the 

 occurrence of certain fibres which pass from the latter to the walls of 

 neighboring arteries. He considers it possible that sympathetic neu- 



