Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of AmericaAudubon, John James
Science
Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America
Audubon, John James
Birds -- North America
In an adult male, the tongue is 1-1/4 inch long, slender, tapering,
emarginate at the base, with minute papillæ, the tip horny along
the back. The œsophagus is 6-1/2 inches long, 5 twelfths in diameter
until it enters the thorax, then dilates to 1 inch and 5 twelfths;
its walls are extremely thin, its inner coat longitudinally plaited.
Proventriculus very short, the belt of oblong glandules being only 7
twelfths in breadth. Stomach rather small, oblong, 1-1/2 inch long,
10 twelfths broad; its lateral muscles rather thick, the tendons
large; the inner coat thick, horny, and thrown into very prominent
longitudinal rugæ, its upper margin abrupt, and manifestly not
continuous with the inner coat of the proventriculus, as some have
supposed the epithelium to be in all birds. In the stomach remains of
fishes. Intestines 1 foot 9-1/2 inches long, its general diameter 1/4
inch. Rectum 1-1/2 inch; cœca extremely small, 2-1/2 twelfths long, 1/2
twelfth in diameter.
Trachea 5-1/2 inches long; its rings 110, extremely thin and
feeble; its diameter at the top 4-1/2 twelfths, at the lower part
2-1/2 twelfths. The lateral muscles are scarcely perceptible, the
sterno-tracheal very slender; the inferior larynx small; the bronchi of
moderate length and width, with 25 half-rings.
KNOT OR ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER.
_TRINGA ISLANDICA_, LINN.
PLATE CCCXV. ADULT IN SUMMER AND WINTER.
The Knot, good Reader, is a handsome and interesting species, whether
in its spring or in its winter plumage, and, provided it be young and
fat, is always welcome to the palate of the connoisseur in dainties.
As to its habits, however, during the breeding season, I am sorry
to inform you that I know nothing at all, for in Labrador, whither I
went to examine them, I did not find a single individual. I have been
informed that several students of nature have visited its breeding
places; but why they have given us no information on the subject,
seeing that not only you and I, but many persons besides, would be glad
to hear about it, is what we cannot account for.
I do not wish you to infer from these remarks, that the persons
alluded to are the only ones who have neglected to note down on the
spot observations which might be interesting and useful. I myself am
very conscious of my own remissness in this respect, and deeply regret
the many opportunities of studying nature which have been in a manner
lost to me, on account of a temporary supineness which has seized
upon me, at the very moment when the objects of my pursuit were placed
within my reach by that bountiful Being to whom we owe all our earthly
enjoyments, and all our hopes of that future happiness which we strive
to merit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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