72 PLINY S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book XI. 



they have just swallowed, while the other is the belly, into 

 which they discharge the food when it is duly prepared 

 and digested ; this is the case with the domestic fowl, the 

 ring-dove, the pigeon, and the partridge. The other birds 

 are in general destitute of crop, but then they have a more ca- 

 pacious gorge, the jackdaw, the raven, and the crow, for in- 

 stance : some, again, are constituted in neither manner, but 

 have the belly close to the gorge, those, for instance, which 

 have the neck very long and narrow, such as the porphyrio. 89 

 In the solid-hoofed animals the belly is rough and hard, 

 while in some land animals it is provided with rough asperi- 

 ties like teeth, 90 and in others, again, it has a reticulated sur- 

 face like that of a file. Those animals which have not the 

 teeth on both sides, and do not ruminate, digest the food in 

 the belly, from whence it descends to the lower intestines. 

 There is an organ in all animals attached in the middle to 

 the navel, and in man similar in its lower part to that of the 

 swine, the name given thereto by the Greeks being " colon," 

 a part of the body which is subject to excruciating pains. 91 

 In dogs this gut is extremely contracted, for which reason it is 

 that they are unable to ease it, except by great efforts, and not 

 without considerable suffering. Those animals with which the 

 food passes at once from the belly through the straight intestine, 

 are of insatiate appetite, as, for instance, the hind- wolf, 92 and 

 among birds the diver. The elephant has four 93 bellies ; the 

 rest of its intestines are similar to those of the swine, and 

 the lungs are four times as large as those of the ox. The belly 

 in birds is fleshy, and formed of a callous substance. In that 

 of young swallows there are found little white or pink pebbles, 

 known by the name of " chelidonii," and said to be employed 

 in magical incantations. In the second belly of the heiter 

 there is a black tufa found, round like a ball, 94 and of no 

 weight to speak of: this, it is generally thought, is singu- 



69 The coot, probably. 



90 He alludes to the papillae of the mucous gland. 



91 The colic. 



92 " Lupus cervarius." Probably the lynx. 



93 The belly of the elephant presents five transversal folds. 



94 See B. xxviii. c. 77. This substance, known by the name of egagro- 

 pile, consists of the hair which the animal has swallowed when licking 

 itself. It assumes a round form, in consequence of the action of the in- 

 testines. 



