Royal Physical Society. 435 



the succeeding portion, and there is a small communication 

 with the upper end of the uterus, to which the tube is bound 

 down. This communication affords the explanation of the for- 

 mation of the spiral thread ; for there can scarcely be any 

 doubt that the albumen which hardens to form that structure 

 comes from the albumen gland. This communication was 

 suspected by Meckel, in consequence of that which he had 

 found in Doris ; but he mistook the object of it, supposing, as 

 he did, that the tubule was a bursa copulatrix, and thatthe 

 communication was for impregnating the eggs in the uterus. 



There can be no doubt, as regards the use of the spiral 

 thread, that Carus was right in supposing it to be for stiffen- 

 ing and dilating the passages ; perhaps it may even grasp the 

 intromittent organ of the other animal. 



V. Note on the Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, Linn. (Pellet found in 

 stomach.) By John Alex. Smith, M.D. 



On the 20th of last May, Dr Smith dissected a male cuckoo, in full 

 adult plumage, which had been shot in this neighbourhood a day or two 

 before. The stomach, a musculo-membranaceous bag, with the proven- 

 triculus well defined, measured two inches in length, and one and a-half 

 inches across or in breadth ; it appeared to contain a firm rounded 

 body, lying loosely in its otherwise empty cavity. On opening the sto- 

 mach, the proventriculus was found filled with a mucous secretion, and 

 a black oval-shaped body was seen, of a smooth and lubricated appear- 

 ance ; it measured one inch in length and about half an inch in breadth, 

 and weighed 31 grains troy. When broken across, it was found to be of a 

 lighter colour, and nearly dry internally, and consisted apparently of 

 the undigested remains of insects and larvae, portions apparently of ely- 

 tra, vessels, &c. It was evidently the indigestible parts of the food pre- 

 pared for being ejected from the stomach by the mouth, — a " pellet" or 

 " cast," as it has been called, which is so well known in the case of the 

 hawks and owls ; and from the abundant secretion in the proventriculus, 

 and empty state of the stomach, was apparently on the very point of be- 

 ing ejected by the mouth. The fact was new to him as regarded the 

 cuckoo, and he therefore noted it with considerable interest. The lining 

 membrane of the stomach showed no appearance, either to the naked eye or 

 to the microscope, of the coating of hair, which has been often described, 

 and which he had seen in other specimens ; this coating is believed to be 

 caused by the bird feeding on hairy caterpillars, perhaps at a more ad- 

 vanced period of the season ; the intestines contained only a uniform 



