AMERICAN ANHINGA. 



455 



muscular fibres running from the lower edge of the mandible downwards and 

 backwards, and a slender muscle passing from the anterior part of the hyoid 

 bone to the junction of the crura of the mandible. The tongue is reduced to 

 a mere oblong knob,. l|- twelfths long, and -^ twelfth in height. The 

 aperture of the glottis is 3 twelfths long, with two roundish thin edged flaps 

 behind, destitute of papillae. There is a small bone appended to the occipital 

 ridge, i inch in length, as in the Cormorants. 



The oesophagus a b, is 17 inches long, exceedingly delicate and dilatable, 



