Trachea of uniform diameter, furnished with one pair of sterno-tracheal muscles, from which a few fibres descend on each side to the upper rings of the bronchiæ; œsophagus of large diameter to about half its length, where it is furnished with a craw, and afterwards contracted to the proventriculus; the craw where it is connected with the œsophagus is much contracted, afterwards it expands into a large sac; proventriculus small; gizzard large, and very muscular; the grinding surfaces hard, concave in the middle, and furnished with longitudinal grooves in the concave part; the intestinal canal is of moderate length, small next the gizzard, largest at the entrance of the cæca, from whence it slightly tapers to the cloaca, which is small; cæca long, of greatest diameter at the opposite extremity to their entrance into the rectum; the gizzard and œsophagus were filled with reeds, mixed with very small pebbles; liver bilobed.
| Length of œsophagus from glottis to gizzard | 3 inch. |
|---|---|
| from œsophagus to outer extremity of craw | ¾ inch. |
| Perpendicular diameter of craw | 7 lines |
| Inches | |
| Greatest diameter of gizzard obliquely to the grinding surfaces | 1 |
| Diameter parallel to the grinding surfaces | ¾ |
| Length of intestine from gizzard to cloaca | 13 |
| from cæca to cloaca | 1¾ |
| of cæca | 3 |
A second specimen, a female, did not differ, except in sex. Skeleton light; bones in general thin.
Sternum broadest posteriorly, and indented on its posterior margin with two large fissures; keel deep, its inferior edge rounded, much scolloped out anteriorly; a moderate size bifid manubrial process between the junction of the coracoids.
Pelvis broad, of moderate length, similar to that found among the genus Strepsilas.
Os furcatum much arched, furnished with a small flattened process, where the ligament unites it to the sternum; coracoid of moderate length, strong, furnished with a large process externally near their junction with the sternum; ribs flattened, posterior process long, slightly curved, and narrow.
| lines | |
|---|---|
| Length of sternum | 16 |
| Breadth anteriorly | 7 |
| posteriorly | 11 |
| Width of fissures | 4 |
| Depth of ditto | 6 |
| keel | 7 |
| Length of pelvis | 16½ |
| Width anteriorly | 6 |
| posteriorly | 12 |
| Length from occiput to point of bill | 16 |
| Breadth of head | 6½ |
| Length of coracoids | 7½ |
| No. of cervical vertebræ | 14 |
| dorsal | 6 |
| sacral | 12 |
| caudal | 7 |
| Total | 39 |
| No. of true ribs | 6 |
| false ditto | 2 |
| Total | 8 |
Remarks. The bill of this curious bird much resembles that of the genus Glareola, but the soft skin covering the nostrils is more developed, in which respect it resembles the quails, and other gallinaceous birds. The structure of the tarsi, feet, and nails approach near to that of Strepsilas, but differ in the latter being sharper, and in the scales on the feet and tarsi being more apparent, which may, perhaps, have been caused to a certain degree by the bird having been for a long while in spirits.
The wing has precisely the same structure as in Glareola, and some of the plovers.
The tail is more lengthened than among the plovers, but not more so than in Glareola praticola, which species has, however, the tail forked, but some of the same genus, as the last named bird, although it is not so long in them, have it in the same shape as in Tinochorus,—as Glareola Australis.