80 
ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 
and terminate at the lower larynx ; from which no muscle extends along the 
bronchi, which, until they enter the thorax, run parallel and in contact, being- 
enclosed within a common sheath of dense cellular tissue. The bronchi 
have the last ring much enlarged, and open into a funnel, which passing 
backwards and terminating in one of the abdominal cells, is perforated above 
with eight or ten transverse elliptical slits, which open into similar tubes or 
tunnels, opening in the same manner into smaller tubes, and thus ramifying 
through the lungs. 
In the male bird, of which the upper part of the trachea has been 
destroyed, there are in one bronchus 80, in the other 71 rings, 20 of the 
upper rings being incomplete. 
The vertebras of the neck have no resemblance to those of Herons, nor 
does that part curve in the same abrupt manner ; and the sternum is in all 
essential respects similar to that of Curlews, Tringas, and other birds of 
that fatuity, it having a very prominent crest, with two deep posterior 
notches on each side. In fact, the sternum of Tringa Cinclus is almost an 
exact miniature of it. 
The compact form of the body, its great muscularity, the form of the legs, 
the length and slenderness of the neck, the form and bareness of the head, 
and the elongation of the bill, especially when it is laterally viewed, all 
indicate an affinity to the Tantali and Numenii. But the Spoonbills are also 
allied in various degrees to Herons and Pelicaninte ; so that they clearly 
present one of those remarkable centres of radiation, demonstrative of the 
absurdity of quinary and circular arrangements, founded merely on a 
comparison of skins. 
