The eyes and corresponding orbits were very large; indeed, I may say remarkably so, considering the size of the skull, the posterior portion of which was very thick, and the brain of a small size, in proportion to what would have been expected from the external appearance of the cranium. The lungs were soft and readily broken, as well as the liver, although neither of them had an unhealthy colour in their external appearance. Upon the under surface of the latter organ, there was a small and nearly oval body, in some degree resembling a clotted piece of blood. On tracing down the alimentary canal, no disease or obstruction could be met with, until, on arriving at the second stomach or gizzard, I found it distended to the utmost with food, and for rather more than an inch above the cardiac orifice, the alimentary canal was also distended, as if some cause prevented the natural passage of the food; the intestines below the gizzard (except at a very short distance from the pyloric orifice, which was also distended with food) were empty. Here, then, I was led to expect some explanation of the cause of obstruction, which had no doubt occasioned the death of the bird. I laid open, with my scalpel, the slightly-distended intestine just below or about the pyloric orifice. The cause of the obstruction was made evident, by the appearance of a _polypus_, which came out, being situated just below the part which was distended, evidently forming the cause of obstruction to the passage of the digested food. This _polypus_ measured, in length, two inches and six-eighths; and in its greatest breadth, three-eighths of an inch. It was rounded at one end; tapering almost to a point at the other. Part was of a bright vermillion, and the remainder of a dirty or yellowish white. Upon a further examination of the interior of this portion of the intestine, there was a thickening of the villous coat, with much secretion of mucus, and also of coagulable lymph. The whole of the remainder of the alimentary canal had its external coats very vascular.[81] The specimen was a female, and, from the similarity of plumage, the others must also be females. The plumage accords with the description given in our works of natural history of this bird. Some bird-fanciers observe, that they can distinguish _male_ from _female_ birds by the sub-scapular feathers near the base; the male birds having always an odd number—as five, seven, nine, eleven; and the females always an even number—as six, eight, twelve, &c., according to the species. But, examining, on a subsequent occasion, a male specimen of this bird, I found no difference of plumage, so as to form a sexual distinction. The two other birds are perfectly healthy in appearance; but as the dead one was so in its external appearance, it is difficult to judge of their health, if suffering from an obstruction similar to that just described. We lost the south-east trade in south latitude 29°, and east longitude 39° 40′ east.