502 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY SECT, xii 



free edge of the soft palate. From the buccal division 

 leads ventrally the slit-like opening of the glottis into the 

 larynx and trachea ; overhanging the glottis is a leaf- 

 like movable flap (ep.) formed of a plate of yellow elastic 

 cartilage covered with mucous membrane; this is the 

 epiglottis. Behind the pharynx becomes continuous with 

 the ossophagus or gullet. The latter is a narrow but 

 dilatable muscular tube, which runs backwards from the 

 pharynx through the neck and thorax to enter the cavity of 

 the abdomen through an aperture in the diaphragm, and 

 opens into the stomach. 



The stomach (Fig. 283) is a wide sac, much wider at the 

 cardiac end, at which the oesophagus enters, than at the 

 opposite or pyloric end, where it passes into the small 

 intestine. The small intestine is an elongated, narrow, 

 greatly coiled tube, the first part of which, or duodenum 

 (du and du'\ forms a U-shaped loop. The large intestine is 

 a wide tube, the first and greater part of which, termed the 

 colon, has its walls sacculated, those of the short, straight 

 posterior part or rectum (ret.} being smooth. At the 

 junction of the small with the larg intestine is a very wide 

 blind tube, the caecum, which is of considerable length and is 

 marked by a spiral construction, indicating the presence in 

 its interior of a narrow spiral valve. At its extremity is a 

 fleshy, finger-like vermiform appendix. 



The intestine, like that of the Pigeon, is attached through- 

 out its length to the dorsal wall of the abdominal cavity by 

 a mesentery or fold of the lining membrane or peritoneum. 



The liver is attached to the diaphragm by a fold of the 

 peritoneum. Its substance is partly divided by a series 

 of fissures into five lobes. A thin-walled gall-bladder lies 

 in a depression on its posterior surface. The common 

 bile-duct (c. b. d.) formed by the union of cystic duct from 



