THE PIGEON. 215 



Make a longitudinal incision through the skin over the 

 keel of the sternum, and continue the incision 

 backwards to the vent and forwards to the throat : 

 dissect away the skin from the whole ventral 

 surface of the body and reflect it right and left, 

 being especially careful in removing it from the 

 crop, to which it is closely adherent. Note : 



150. The oesophagus or gullet, a wide thin-walled 

 tube, lying along the ventral aspect of the neck, and 

 enlarging posteriorly into a bilobed dilatation, the crop : 

 both gullet and crop are now unnaturally distended. 



151. The trachea, a narrow tube, surrounded 1 at short 

 intervals with bony rings, which give it an annulated 

 appearance : it lies on the ventral side of the anterior end of 

 the gullet, but soon crosses to the left and passes to the 

 dorsal side of the crop. 



152. The jugular veins, large vessels, usually gorged 

 with blood in a freshly killed bird, running one on each side 

 of the neck, dorsal to the crop: each jugular is seen to 

 receive feeders from the gullet and crop, as well as from a 

 more or less extensive venous plexus in the skin of 

 the neck. 



153. The pectoralis major, a large muscle forming 

 the greater part of each side of the breast : its fibres are 

 readily seen to arise from the carina sterni and from the 

 clavicle, and to pass forwards and outwards, converging 

 as they go, to the ventral aspect of the humerus (see 

 3 2 7, P- 252). 



154. The abdominal muscles, forming the soft fleshy 



plaster of Paris or gelatine (see p. 48, 162) until the injecting fluid rises 

 in the glass tube. When the plaster or gelatine has set, remove the india- 

 rubber tube from the humerus, and proceed as directed in the succeeding 

 paragraphs. 



