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Show 880.] MR. FORBES ON THE STOMACH IN TANAGERS. 143 March 2, 1880. Prof. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. The following papers were read:- 1. Contributions to the Anatomy of Passerine Birds.-Part I. O n the Structure of the Stomach in certain Genera of Tanagers. By W . A. F O R B E S , B.A., F.L.S., Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, Prosector to the Society. [Received February 16, 1880.] Under this heading I propose to continue from time to time, as material may occur, the " Notes on the Anatomy of Passerine Birds," of which the late Prof. Garrod published four parts in the Society's ' Proceedings ' **. In the vast majority of Passerine birds the structure of the anterior part of the alimentary canal conforms to the type present in the Fowl-that is to say, to an oesophagus, which may or may not Fig. 1. *Stomach of Tachyphonus melaleucus, natural size, undisturbed, and viewed from behind. The liver, oesophagus, and small intestine are also partially represented. be dilated into a crop, succeeds a stomach consisting of two parts:- an anterior glandular part, the proventriculus; and a posterior part, separated off from both proventriculus and duodenum by more or less distinct constrictions-the gizzard or ventriculus, oi which the muscular walls are always more or less thickened, and provided with a central tendon on each side (vide fig. 1). i Part I. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 506; Part II. 1877, p. 447; Part III. 1877, p. 523 ; Part IV. 1878, p. 143. PROC ZOOL. Soc-1880, No. X. 10 |