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Show 140 DR. J. MURIE ON THE GULAR POUCH OF OTIS TARDA. [Feb. 25, pliant; but it is dexterously turned upwards and to one side when he is at the breast; and the usual position is standing at right angles with the mother. The young one generally sleeps under the mother's belly, lying on his side, his legs stretched out straight. He not unfrequently lies down under other Elephants, and is quite fearless among them, they always treating him kindly, never hurting him. "The smallest Bucha may go up to the largest male, even when he is Musth*, and he will be kindly treated." The large one will welcome him with his trunk, laying it over him and smelling him. 2. Note on the Sublingual Aperture and Sphincter of the Gular Pouch in Otis tarda. By J A M E S M U R I E , M.D., F.L.S., Prosector to the Society. The following memoranda may be regarded as addenda to the paper on the gular pouch ot Otis kori and O. australis, previously communicated by me to the Society (see P. Z. S. 1868, p. 471). Since then an opportunity has been afforded me of examining a male specimen of the Great Bustard at least six years old, judging from the time the biid had been in the Society's possession. A gular pouch was present, as described underneath. On looking into the mouth of the bird while the tongue lies between the rami of the lower mandible, no opening into the gular pouch is seen; but when the tongue is raised and the parts held as in the act of gaping an aperture easily admitting one's finger is observed. This is situated beneath, and almost an inch behind, the tongue itself; in fact it lies underneath the upper larynx, occupying the space between it and the submandibular deep and cutaneous tissues. In the stretched condition of the parts above spoken of (displayed in the figure, p. 141), the said aperture (a) is oval in form, assuming almost an elliptical figure if its raised whitish marginal membrane is followed. This marginal fold of membrane or lip (/) is, indeed, the true boundary of the aperture itself; but as it is partly adherent to the tissue beneath the uro-hyal and to the subcutaneous textures between the rami of the lower mandible, it causes the opening to appear almost arched instead of an acute ellipse, as it truly is when the tongue is pulled out and the skin near the "beard" is held tense. A second short raised membranous fold (f) proceeds at an acute angle outwards from the middle of each outer side of the former one and goes to the tissues covering the muscles lying beneath the thyro-hyals. These two latter duplications of the faucial membrane permit of stretching of the parts when the thyro-hyals are by any means thrown outwards; and they may also influence the tonicity of the membrane of the aperture itself when its marginal lips * The tame males, and males driven out of a herd, are subject to fits of temporary fury, or madness. In this state they are said to be " Musth." |