ON THE BRITISH BIRDS OF PREY. 0\ 



makers, who depend upon such materials when they 

 build their castles ! How absurd is it for one who has 

 superficially examined the mere exterior of a hundred 

 or a thousand birds, to pretend that he can place them 

 in the order of nature ! 



But, as I have said, every'person in writing on birds 

 must follow some method ; and although I am not qua- 

 lified to dictate, like some sage who has acquired great 

 celebrity and much self-sufl&ciency ; yet, for the benefit 

 of such of my readers as, being unacquainted with birds, 

 may desire to know how they may distinguish the ra- 

 pacious species from the rest, I must endeavour to ela- 

 borate a few general characters. I therefore proceed 

 more majorum ; but let me first off*er a few remarks on 

 the intestinal canal. 



In Plate I. are represented, on a small scale, the obso- 

 phagus, stomach, and intestines, of the Common Buz- 

 zard, Buteo vulgaris. Fig. I. exhibits: 1^^, The oeso- 

 phagus or gullet, which is thin or membranous, dilat- 

 able, expanded anterior to its entrance into the thorax, 

 so as to form a large sac or crop, which is surrounded 

 by muscular fibres, afterwards contracted, and at its 

 lower part somewhat enlarged, that portion, the pro- 

 ventriculus, being studded with cylindrical glandules, 

 the central cavities of which open upon the inner or 

 mucous membrane, ^dly, The stomach, of a roundish 

 form, having two small central tendons, of which the 

 anterior only is seen, and a thin muscular coat formed 



