80 ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 



and terminate at the lower larynx; from which no muscle extends along the 

 bronchi, which, until they enter the thorax, run parallel and in contact, being 

 enclosed within a common sheath of dense cellular tissue. The bronchi 

 have the last ring much enlarged, and open into a funnel, which passing 

 backwards and terminating in one of the abdominal cells, is perforated above 

 with eight or ten transverse elliptical slits, which open into similar tubes or 

 tunnels, opening in the same manner into smaller tubes, and thus ramifying 

 through the lungs. 



In the male bird, of which the upper part of the trachea has been 

 destroyed, there are in one bronchus SO, in the other 71 rings, 20 of the 

 upper rings being incomplete. 



The vertebras of the neck have no resemblance to those of Herons, nor 

 does that part curve in the same abrupt manner; and the sternum is in all 

 essential respects similar to that of Curlews, Tringas, and other birds of 

 that family, it having a very prominent crest, with two deep posterior 

 notches on each side. In fact, the sternum of Tringa Cinclus is almost an 

 exact miniature of it. 



The compact form of the body, its great muscularity, the form of the legs, 

 the length and slenderness of the neck, the form and bareness of the head, 

 and the elongation of the bill, especially when it is laterally viewed, all 

 indicate an affinity to the Tantali and Numenii. But the Spoonbills are also 

 allied in various degrees to Herons and Pelicaninae; so that they clearly 

 present one of those remarkable centres of radiation, demonstrative of the 

 absurdity of quinary and circular arrangements, founded merely on a 

 comparison of skins. 



