136 DICK-CISSEL DIGESTIVE (SVSTEM 
and subdivided into several sections or genera, but has been of late 
advanced to the dignity of a Family, Dicwidx, for which much might 
be said ; but several forms have at the same time been erroneously 
referred to it (Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. pp. 9-84)—among them 
the DIAMOND-BIRDS above mentioned. The Dicaide range from 
Nepal through India (where they have been called, but seemingly 
without reason, Flower-pickers) and the Malay Archipelago to 
China and Australia ; but to this Family have been referred a good 
many forms which Dr. Gadow’s researches prove to have no near 
relationship to Dicwum proper. 
DICK-CISSEL, the nickname familiarly applied to the Black- 
throated Bunting of writers, Spiza or Huspiza americana, a species 
whose recent disappearance from localities which it formerly fre- 
quented has not yet been explained by North-American ornitholo- 
gists (of. H. M. Smith, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xiii. p. 171). 
DIDAPPER or DIVEDAPPER, an old name (cf. Shakespear, 
Venus and Adonis, line 86) for the DABCHICK or Little GREBE. 
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. This consists chiefly of the Ali- 
mentary Canal and its glandular appendages, the former, beginning 
with the MourH, is successively made up of the CHsopHAGUS, the 
STOMACH, the small intestine or “ileum,” and the large intestine 
or “rectum” (with the Caca when present), which last opens into 
the Ctoaca. The glandular appendages are either proventricular 
and other mucous glands, imbedded in the walls of the Canal, or 
salivary glands, Liver, and PANCREAS, communicating with it 
through special ducts. The function of the System is of two 
separate kinds: first the preparation of the food, which is effected 
in part mechanically and in part by chemically-acting secretions 
of the accessory glands; and_ secondly the absorption of the 
“chyle,” or prepared nutritive fluid, by means of the LYMPHATIC 
SYSTEM. 
The digestive process is as follows:—The food taken into the 
mouth is swallowed and passes through the cesophagus into the 
stomach, assisted in its descent by the secretions of the salivary 
and mucous glands. When there is a Crop, it is therein mixed 
with saliva and water, and assisted by the heat of the body is 
softened and acted upon in a preliminary way. It then enters the 
stomach, where it meets with the secretions of the proventricular or 
gastric glands. But beside being acted upon chemically it is 
crushed and triturated in the gizzard, especially in graminivorous 
and granivorous birds, which possess a strong muscular stomach. 
Thus comminuted it is known as “chyme,” and passes through the 
pylorus into the small intestine, in the first loop of which, the 
“duodenum,” it is mixed with the bile and pancreatic juice, these 
