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Show 104 MR. A. H. GARROD ON CARPOPHAGA LATRANS. [Jan. 15, by MM. Jules Verreaux and O. Des Murs in Phcenorhina goliath^ of N e w Caledonia, which " se nourrit de graines de semicarpum." In this bird "le gesier, deja on nepeut plus musculeux par lui-meme, a sa surface inferieure regulierement recouverte . . . de pointes veri-tablement osseuses, rappelant la forme de celles qui se voient a. la surface du corps de la Raia bouclee, ou Clavel, ou Clavelade. Ces pointes, en cone aplati, ont leur base plane de 5 millim. de diametre, d'une hauteur de 5 a 6 mill., sont legerement inclinees sur elles-memes, et quelquefois recourbees par la dessication, l'extremite en e'tant mousse." A central fibrous peduncle is also said to run through each osseous element. Phcenorhina goliath, from what has been said above, therefore differs from Carpophaga latrans in having the cones of the gizzard proportionally longer, at the same time that they are ossified (which necessitates the presence of vessels in the ossification, which appear after death as the fibrous cord) and oblique. There is, however, a great similarity between the two organs. I a m informed by the Rev. S. J. Whitmee that Carpophaga pacifica in the Samoan Islands feeds on nutmegs, from which it is highly probable that in that species the gizzard-epithelium is modified in a manner similar to that of the Fiji or N e w Caledonian species. Specimens of C. pacifica preserved would therefore be of special interest for the determination of this point. Fig. 2. 17 Syrinx of Carpophaga latrans. With reference to the other parts of Carpophaga latrans, the intestine is very capacious, only nine inches long, and transversely sacculated from the contraction of its outer longitudinal muscular coat, this producing the appearance of thirty bold transverse folds on the mucous surface. There are no colic caeca; and, as in the genus Carpophaga generally2, the gAll-bladder is well developed. The liver-lobes are equal in size. 1 Revue et Magasin de Zoologie, 1862, p. 168. * Vide P. Z. S. 1874, p. 258. |