78 ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 



The affinities of this remarkable bird being variously represented by 

 authors, it becomes a matter of considerable interest to determine its 

 relations according to its internal organs. The skin is thin, but tough, and 

 the subcutaneous cellular tissue is largely developed. In these respects its 

 affinity is to the Ibises and Curlews, as much at least as to any other birds. 

 On the roof of the mouth are two rows of blunt papillae, as in • many 

 Scolopacidse. The tongue is extremely small, being only 3 twelfths of an 

 inch in length, but 7 twelfths in breadth at the base, where it is emarginate 

 and furnished with numerous delicate papillae, the outer much larger. The 

 gular membrane is very dilatable and of the same general nature as that of 

 Cormorants and Pelicans, having a longitudinal series of muscular fibres 

 along the centre, with two layers of fasciculi interposed between the external 

 skin and the internal, the inner fasciculi running parallel to the lower 

 mandible, the outer transversely. The bill is similar to that of the Pelican's 

 modified, the middle part or ridge being flattened, and the unguis abbre- 

 viated. The breadth of the mouth is within l T \ inches. The external 

 aperture of the ear is roundish, 4 twelfths in diameter, that of the meatus 

 oblique, oblong, 3 twelfths across. The oesophagus, a b, is 17 inches long 

 (including the proventriculus, as in all the other measurements); its diameter 

 at the top li inches, at the distance of six inches it contracts to 5 twelfths, 

 then for four inches enlarges, having its greatest diameter 1 T 1 ^ inches; 

 between the coracoid bones it again contracts to half an inch, and on entering 

 the thorax enlarges to an inch. The proventriculus is bulbiform, 1^ inches 

 long, its glandules very large, cylindrical, the longest being \ inch, and 1 

 twelfth in diameter. The stomach, c d, is a powerful gizzard of a roundish 

 form, 1 inch 11 twelfths long, and 1 inch 10 twelfths broad; the muscular 

 fibres disposed in large fasciculi all around, but not forming distinct lateral 

 muscles; the central tendons very large, being 10 twelfths in diameter; the 

 cuticular lining excessively thick, of a rather soft texture, divided by deep 

 longitudinal irregular fissures, its greatest thickness being about half an inch. 

 The intestine d ef is very long, measuring S feet 9j inches, of moderate 

 diameter, varying from 4 to 3^ twelfths; it is compactly and beautifully 

 arranged in very numerous somewhat concentric folds, being coiled up like a 

 rope; the duodenum d e, curving backwards and upwards over the stomach for 

 five inches, then returning, and enclosing the pancreas, until under the right 

 lobe of the liver where it receives the biliary ducts. The cloaca is globular, 

 2 inches in diameter when distended; the rectum, exclusive of the cloaca, Sc- 

 inches, and having at its upper extremity two bulging knobs in place of 

 coeca. Now, the oesophagus and proventriculus are those of a Numenius, 

 the stomach that of a Heron in the arrangement of its fasciculi, and in the 

 softness of its epithelium; but otherwise it differs in being much larger and 



