SCOLOPACEOUS COURLAN. 
185 
more elongated than usual, an inch and 2 twelfths, and presents the appear- 
ance of a tube curved toward the left in the form of the letter S. The 
circular fibres of this part are strong, and its epithelium is very thick, soft, 
and raised into twelve very prominent rounded longitudinal rugae. The 
stomach, properly so called, d efg , is an extremely powerful gizzard, of an 
orbicular form, compressed, with its axis a little inclined toward the right 
side, its length 1 inch and 9 twelfths, its breadth 1 inch and 8 twelfths, its 
thickness 11 twelfths. The left lateral muscle, d f, is much larger than the 
right, occupying nearly one-half of the organ ; the muscles are thick, but not 
very remarkably so, their greatest thickness being 4 twelfths^ the epithelium 
is very hard and rugous. The duodenum, ghi, curves in the usual manner, 
folding back upon itself at the distance of 3 inches. The intestine, g h ij k, 
is of moderate length, 31 inches, its greatest diameter 3 twelfths ; the 
rectum, Jc l, 3 inches long, including the cloaca, l m, which is globular, Is 
inches in diameter ; the coeca, n n, of moderate size, 14 inches long, for 
nearly half their length 2 twelfths iii diameter, in the rest of their extent 
from 4 to 6 twelfths, obtuse ; their distance from the cloaca 10 twelfths. 
The trachea, 0 p, is 10 inches long, narrow, of nearly uniform diameter, 
being narrowest in the upper third of its length, unless for three fourths of 
an inch at the commencement. Its rings, 186 in number, are ossified, and a 
little flattened. The contractor muscles are slender, as are the sterno- 
tracheal ; and there is a single pair of inferior laryngeal. The bronchi, p q, 
are wide, tapering, of about 15 narrow cartilaginous half rings. The heart 
is of moderate size, 1 T \ inches long, 1 inch in breadth. The liver is small, 
its lobes, which are equal, being 1 inch in length. 
The other individual, a male, has the oesophagus 12 inches long ; the 
distance from the proventriculus to the stomach 1 T 3 5 inches; the stomach 1 ^ 
inches long, and the same in breadth ; the coeca 2 inches long, the greatest 
diameter 5 twelfths ; the intestine 32 i inches in length, their greatest 
diameter 3J twelfths. 
Now, in all this there is nothing indicative of any affinity .to the Herons ; 
the structure of the intestinal canal being essentially like that of the Coots, 
G-allinules, and Rails. Even the external parts sufficiently indicate its 
station, the bill, the plumage and the colouring being more like those of the 
Rallinae than of any other family. 
The Prince of Musignano, who first described this bird ts a Rail, Rallus 
giganteus, afterwards adopted for it Vieillot’s genus Aramus , and con- 
sidered it as belonging to the Ardeida, forming a connecting link with them 
and the Rallidce, and “aberrating somewhat towards the Scolopacidce, as 
well as tending a little towards the Psophidce, sub-family Gruince,” and 
claiming “ again a well-founded resemblance to the most typical form of the 
