78 
ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 
The affinities of this remarkable bird being variously represented by 
authors, it becomes a matter of considerable interest to determine its 
relations according to its internal organs. The skin is thin, but tough, and 
the subcutaneous cellular tissue is largely developed. In these respects its 
affinity is to the Ibises and Curlews, as much at least as to any other birds. 
On the roof of the mouth are two rows of blunt papillae, as in many 
Scolopacidm. The tongue is extremely small, being only 3 twelfths of an 
inch in length, but 7 twelfths in breadth at the base, where it is emarginate 
and furnished with numerous delicate papillae, the outer much larger. The 
gular membrane is very dilatable and of the same general nature as that of 
Cormorants and Pelicans, having a longitudinal series of muscular fibres 
along the centre, with two layers of fasciculi interposed between the external 
skin and the internal, the inner fasciculi running parallel to the lower 
mandible, the outer transversely. The bill is similar to that of the Pelican’s 
modified, the middle part or ridge being flattened, and the unguis abbre- 
viated. The breadth of the mouth is within lyV inches. The external 
aperture of the ear is roundish, 4 twelfths in diameter, that of the meatus 
oblique, oblong, 3 twelfths across. The oesophagus, a b, is 17 inches long 
(including the proventriculus, as in all the other measurements); its diameter 
at the top 1? inches, at the distance of 6 inches it contracts to 5 twelfths, 
then for four inches enlarges, having its greatest diameter l,- 1 ^ inches ; 
between the coracoid bones it again contracts to half an inch, and on entering 
the thorax enlarges to an inch. The proventriculus is bulbiform, 1J inches 
long, its glandules very large, cylindrical, the longest being i inch, and 1 
twelfth in diameter. The stomach, c d, is a powerful gizzard of a roundish 
form, 1 inch 11 twelfths long, and 1 inch 10 twelfths broad ; the muscular 
fibres disposed in large fasciculi all around, but not forming distinct lateral 
muscles ; the central tendons very large, being 10 twelfths in diameter ; the 
cuticular lining excessively thick, of a rather soft texture, divided by deep 
longitudinal irregular fissures, its greatest thickness being about half an inch. 
The intestine, d e f, is very long, measuring 8 feet 9 h inches, of- moderate 
diameter, varying from 4 to Sh twelfths; it is compactly and beautifully 
arranged in very numerous somewhat concentric folds, being coiled up like a 
rope; the duodenum, de, curving backwards and upwards over the stomach for 
five inches, then returning, and enclosing the pancreas, until under the right 
lobe of the liver where it receives the biliary ducts. The cloaca is globular, 
2 inches in diameter when distended; the rectum, exclusive of the cloaca, 82 
inches, and having at its upper extremity two bulging knobs in place of 
coeca. Now, the oesophagus and proventriculus are those of a Numenius 
the stomach that of a Heron in the arrangement of its fasciculi, and in the 
softness of its epithelium; but otherwise it differs in being much larger and 
