EAGLES AND HAWKS. 29 



pouch or crop, which always projects on the right side 

 of the trachea. It is encircled by inconspicuous mus- 

 cular fibres, and its internal membrane is either plain 

 or raised into longitudinal rugae. At its lower part, its 

 walls are much thickened, there being interposed be- 

 tween its outer and inner coats numerous small cylin- 

 drical glandules, having a central cavity into which a 

 viscid fluid is secreted, and from which it passes into 

 the stomach. The glandules completely surround the 

 cavity of the proventriculus, which being little enlarged 

 in this family, seems rather to belong to the oesopha- 

 gus than to the stomach, but in some species they are 

 slightly separated into groups by longitudinal grooves. 

 The latter organ is of moderate size, roundish or broad- 

 ly elliptical, more or less compressed. It is covered 

 with fasciculi of muscular fibres, which converge to- 

 wards two thin roundish tendons placed on its opposite 

 flattened sides. These fibres seem to run continuously 

 from one tendon to the other, there being no apparent 

 line of insertion along the edges of the organ. The 

 inner coat is very soft, smooth or slightly villous, desti- 

 tute of rugae, and, when the bird has been dead for 

 some time, is usually in part dissolved by the gastric 

 fluid. The pylorus, which is placed very near the car- 

 diac orifice, on the upper and hind part of the stomach, 

 is furnished with a marginal rim, under which there is 

 in some species a valvular apparatus. The intestine is 

 slender, its upper fourth wider, the rest very narrow, 

 and continuing of a nearly uniform diameter to the 

 rectum ; at the commencement of which are two very 

 small coeca, not exceeding a quarter of an inch in any 

 species. The rectum is wider, and towards the end 



