THE GREENSHANK TATLER. 321 



Both sexes become darker on the upper parts, at the approach of spring. 

 This dark colour disappears after their autumnal moult. 



The tongue is 1 T 2 2 inches in length, slender, sagittate and papillate at the 

 base, triangular, tapering to a fine point. On the roof of the mouth are two 

 rows of large blunt papillae directed backwards; the edges of the mandibles 

 are thick and grooved; the posterior aperture of the nares linear, ^ long. 

 The oesophagus, 6f inches in length, passes along the right side of the neck, 

 and has a diameter of T 3 2 of an inch in its upper part, but is dilated to T s 5 

 before it enters the thorax. The proventriculus is oblong, T 8 2 in length, its 

 glandules oblong. The stomach is oblong, 1 T 2 2 inches in length, -f^ m 

 breadth, its lateral muscles of moderate size, the tendons T 5 2 in diameter, the 

 cuticular lining hard, with large longitudinal rugee, and of a deep red colour. 

 The intestine 2 feet 8 inches long, varying in diameter from -ff to -^. The 

 rectum 1 T 9 2 inches long; the coeca 4 T % inches long, of an oblong form, with 

 the extremity rounded, their diameter ^f. 



In another individual, the oesophagus is 6j inches long; the stomach ly^; 

 the intestine 2 feet 3 inches; the rectum 1 T 9 2, the coeca 4 T ^, their diameter -yf . 



The trachea, 4 T 3 2 inches long, ff in diameter above, -f^ below; of 120 un- 

 ossified rings; its contractor muscles feeble, the sterno-tracheal moderate; a 

 single pair of inferior laryngeal; the bronchial rings about 15. 



THE GREENSHANK TATLER. 



-f Totanus Glottis, Linn. 



PLATE CCCXLVL— Male. 



While on Sand Key, which is about six> miles distant from Cape Sable of 

 the Floridas, in lat. 24° 57' north, and 81° 45' long, west of Greenwich, I 

 shot three birds of this species on the 28th of May, 1832. I had at first 

 supposed them to be Tell-tale Godwits, as they walked on the bars and into 

 the shallows much in the same manner, and, on obtaining them, imagined 

 they were new; but on shewing them to my assistant Mr. Ward, who was 

 acquainted with the Greenshank of Europe, he pronounced them to be of 

 that species, and I have since ascertained the fact by a comparison of speci- 

 mens. They were all male birds, and I observed no material difference in 



