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Show 1890.] ANATOMY OF PODICA SENEGALENSIS. 431 the myology, however, is a very short one, and occupies hardly one page of Giebel's paper. § 3. Alimentary Viscera. The remarks that I am able to make under this head are not many, as the organs were not in a very first-rate condition, being much softened and compacted together. The right lobe of the liver is larger than the left, and there appears to be no gall-bladder; the intestines measure twenty-one inches. Cceca are present and arise from the gut at a distance of about two inches from the cloaca; each caecum measures as nearly as possible one and a half inches in length. These facts do not point in any particular direction ; the absence of a gall-bladder is certainly peculiar, but I should not like to be very positive upon this point, considering the somewhat softened condition of the viscera '. One of the most important aspects of the alimentary tract, viz. the disposition of the convolutions of the intestine, has been already investigated by Gadow, and a description appears in the most recent fasciculus of his work on the Anatomy of Birds [5, p. 709 et seq.). Dr. Gadow makes the following remarks :-" The birds of the first circle group themselves round the Grallae as the middle point. Limicolae and Rallidae can readily be derived from each other; they have, however, sufficient differences in the general alimentary system to allow them to be regarded as equivalent divisions of the Grallse. To the Rallidae belong the Alectorides or Crane-like forms, such as Grus, Psophia, Dicholophus, Otis. Rhinochetus unites in its alimentary system, particularly in the disposition of the intestine, characters of the Rail, Limicoline and Ibis-like birds; the relationship with these is, however, remote, and only the Ethiopian genus Podica shows striking resemblances to the New-Caledonian Rhinochetus. It is not improbable that both, with the American genera Heliornis and Eurypyga, diverged early from the common Rail-like stock, and are now isolated forms." The Pygopodes (inch Podici-pedidae and Colymbidae) appear to be altogether different as regards their intestinal convolutions. § 4. Syrinx. This organ is illustrated in the accompanying drawing (p. 432, fig. 1) ; there is nothing particularly remarkable about it. The intrinsic muscles are attached to the first bronchial semirings ; these are very different from the tracheal rings in appearance; they are much bent (into a bow-shape, the convexity being anterior), thin, and not ossified ; the last tracheal rings on the contrary are stout and stiff, though apparently not ossified, and closely applied to each other. There are 17 (16 on one side) bronchial semirings, between which are membranous intervals decreasing posteriorly. The bron-chidesmus is complete. The syrinx of Podica is in fact in every way thoroughly typical. 1 Moreover Giebel distinctly states that a gall-bladder is present in Podoa. |