42 PURPLE GALLINULE.
Weight of one individual oz.,, of another both males ; of a
fourth 7 oz.;• of a fifth ; and of a sixth only 44.
The female is somewhat smaller, but similar to the male, the frontal
plate is less extended, and the tints of the plumage a little less vivid.
The young are at first covered with black down. When fledged
they are olivaceous on the upper parts, dull purple beneath; the bill
dull green. After the first moult, the bill is light carmine, greonishyellow
at the end, tlu: head dark purple; the plumage coloured as
abovedeseribed, but legs brilliant, the tarsi and toes greenish-yellow.
I n a.male bird, the tongue is 1>0 twelfths of an inch long, sagittate
at the hase, with conical papillae, of which the outer are larger, slightly
concave above, horny towards the end, which is thin, rather obtuse, and
lacerated. On the middle line of die roof of the mouth anteriorly is a
row >of large blunt papillae, behind which are two rows; aperture of posterior
nar,es linear. (Esophagus 7 inches lorig, offnoderat e width, its greatest
diameter, at the lower part of the nock, where it: i s a l i t t l e dilated, ,§
twelfths. Prchvemtriculus long; its glandules lj*2
ilong.. Stomach
a largeiand powerful .gizzard, broadly elliptical, tl-J inch Jpng, 1T
5
3
broad, its lateral muscles large, the tendons covering nearly their whole
surface, the .lefit muscles, j inch think, the right -A, the cutieular lining
moderately rugous. Intestine .2:1 ihehss, long, -from to (2 in diamet
e r . Rectum 2 | inehes.; caeca 2, their diameter j y towards the end.
, Trachea, moderately loxtetided, inches Jong, its greatest breadth
its least l-j'j. Its rings 130, very slender, unossified, collapsed,
and owing to their narrowness in the middle line before and behind,
seeming as jf broken there;} bronchi with 15 hali-rings. , .Mfe, contractor
muscles moderate, ¡the sterno-tracheal slender; a pair of: muscles ,on
the lower larynx, f rom the lower rings of the trachea (to the membrane
over the first bronchial ring.
. In the mouth was a small frog, in the pharynx two, inthe .cesophagustwo
more, a large piece of root, numerous fragments of insects,
and a leach, the frogs 2 J inches long. In the giazard were seeds, and
fragments iof white fleshy roots.
^ 43 )
G R E A T NORTHERN DIVEli OR LOON.
COLYMHUS OiACUJ.IS, LlNN.
J'l./YTE H B m Am.iT Maik and Youwa Male.
.Tiik Loon, as this-interesting species of Diver is generally called
-in the. United States,,« a strong, active, and vigilant bird. When it
has acquired its perfect plumage, which is not altered in colour at any
successive moult, it is really a beautiful creature ;: and the student of
Mature who has opportunities of observing: its habits, cannot fail to derive
much pleasure from watching it as it pursues its avocations. View
it ¡us it buoyaMy Swims oyer the heaving billows of the Atlantic,, or
as it glides along deeply .immersed, when apprehensive.«f danger, on
the ;placid lake, on the grassy islet of which its nest is placed:; calculate,
if you can, the speed of its. flight, as it shoots across:,,#9 s%,;
mark the many plunges .it performs in quest of its finny food, or in
eluding its enemies, ; Est to the loud and plaintive, notes which it issues,
either to announce i t s safety to its mate, or ,to invite some traveller of
its race, to alight, and find repose and food ¡¿.follow the anxious and
careful mother-bird, as she leads about her precious charge ; and you
,vill not count your labour lost, for you will have watched the ways, of
one of the wondrous creations of unlimited Power and unerring Wisdom.
„ ,Y.ou will find pleasure too in admiring the glossy tints of its
head and neck, and the singular regularity of the unnumbered spots
by which its dusky back and wings aire checkered.
I have met with the Great Diver, in winter, on .all the watercourses
of the United States, whence, however, it departs when the
cold becomes extreme, and the surface is converted into an impenetrable
sheet, of ice. I have seen, it also along the whole, of our Atlantic
coast, from Maine to the extremity of Florida, and from thence-to
the mouths of the Mississippi, and the shores of Texas, about Galveston
Island, where some individuals in the .plumage characteristic of the
second moult, were observed in the course of fAf f lat e expedition, in
the month of April 1837. Indeed, as is the case with most other species
of migrating birds, the .young remove farther south that the old indi