520 HABITS AND ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE 
in its search after insects and worms. This occupation it 
pursued with such intensity, while the gardener was turn- 
ing up the soil, as sometimes to endanger its head from the 
stroke of the spade. It delighted to wade in pools of v/ater; 
and was often observed to plunge its head below the sur- 
face, seemingly in quest of prey. 
Latham has placed the PsopMa among the Gallinacei ; 
but Cuvier, with greater propriety, has included it in his 
order of EcJiassiei^s, the Grall<z of Linnseus ; to which the 
habits of the bird, and its external form (with the excep- 
tion of its head), are more analogous. This idea acquires 
further confirmation from the very little fat between the 
skin and muscles of this bird, as well as the extreme diffi- 
culty I found in separating them. In all my specimens, 
though apparently healthy, there was no fat to be seen be- 
tween the skin and muscles, except a very little about the 
rump ; yet in two of them there was a considerable accu- 
mulation of fat among the intestines, shewing that they were 
not emaciated. 
The gullet of the Psophia is strongly muscular ; its giz- 
zard small, muscular, and, when recent, its internal coat is 
rugous, and is lined with a grass-green viscid fluid. The 
liver is large, covering the greatest part of the other viscera. 
The intestines are cylindrical, and nearly equal the narrow- 
est part of the gullet in diameter ; the cloaca is but slightly 
dilated. The coats of the intestines are thick and strong ; 
they come off at right angles from the middle of the right 
side of the gizzard. In the two females the oviducts were 
short ; the ovaries distinct, but not developed. 
The transparent partitions of the great air-cells are re- 
markably tough in this bird, and communicate with each 
other in the usual manner. The external surfaces of the 
lungs are perforated by holes visible to the naked eve, and 
pervious to air. 
