8558 



Birds, 



last, was examined by me, and with precisely the same result as before. In con- 

 clusion, the only suggestion I can offer as a means of explaining the existence of a 

 pouch in the fore part of the neck is that, in the males, some of the membranes sur- 

 rounding the throat may occasionally be ruptured through the excessive distention 

 that takes place during the violent paroxysms to which the birds are subject on the 

 approach of the breeding-season. I have seen them with throats enlarged to an extra- 

 ordinary extent, the pinions lowered to the ground, while the points of the primaries 

 are' crossed over their backs. In this distorted attitude they rush on and attack each 

 other, affording one reason to imagine that these delicate membranes may at such a 

 time give way, and produce the abnormal condition so often alluded to as being found 

 in old males. As a further probability of this being the true explanation, I would 

 call attention to the great diversity in size and shape of the so-called pouch, as given 

 by different observers. The fluid contained therein would be also fully accounted for, 

 if my hypothesis be correct." Dr. Giinther besides has furnished me with his obser- 

 vations on the dissection of one of these specimens, at which he, as Mr. Bartlett 

 states, was present. Dr. Giinther says: — " It was an adult male, as we saw by the 

 plumage and by the testicles. There was no trace of a foramen below the tongue, or 

 of any peculiar sac communicating with the cavity of the mouth. The oesophagus 

 dilated into a large crop. The cellular tissue between the oesophagus and the trachea, 

 and in the region above the furcula, did not show any development greatly differing 

 from what we find in other birds." Dr. Giinther, I believe, does not entirely assent 

 to the probability of Mr. Bartlett's ingenious suggestion being the true explanation of 

 the case, but says that " It is possible that an accessory organ, peculiar to the male 

 sex, like this sac, may be found in some males, probably in the larger portion, and in 

 others not. From this single example which I have seen, I should for the present 

 draw the conclusion only that the sac is not constant in all specimens." It has long 

 been known in this country that at tjie death of John Hunter, in 1793, his manu- 

 scripts passed into the hands of Sir Everard Home, by whom they were burnt, after he 

 had adopted from them many ideas, which he announced as his own, but fortunately 

 not before copies of a considerable number of the papers had been made by Mr. Clift. 

 At the death of this gentleman these copies came into the possession of Professor 

 Owen, who in the course of last year published them. In this work (' Essays and 

 Observations on Natural History/ ii. pp. 300, 301) occurs the following passage: — 

 " The cock bustard has a very thick neck, and long hairy feathers under his throat. 

 On the fore part of his neck, reaching lower down than the middle, is a large bag, as 

 large as the thick part of one's arm : it terminates in a blind pouch below, but has an 

 opening into it at the upper end from tbe mouth. This aperture will admit three or 

 four fingers ; it is under the tongue, and the frsenum lingua? seems to enter it ; and it 

 seems to have a sphincter. What the use of this is I don't know. In a young cock 

 bustard, about a year and a half old, this pouch did not exist ; therefore it becomes a 

 question whether or not this is a matter of age." — Alfred Newton, in the ' IbisJ 

 April, 1862. [Communicated by the Author."] 



Reported Discovery of the Moa. — Explorers in New Zealand report that they have 

 found traces of the gigantic bird called by the natives the "moa," which induce them 

 to think it is not extinct. The bones found in the earlier days of the colony, though 

 not very recent, were not fossil. Some, indeed, which I have seen had cartilage 

 about them which Papin's digester would have been capable of converting into soup. 

 The bones found by the last explorers were much more recent, and were on the sur- 



