PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 111 



Dissecting the dark colored, tough, muscular giz- 

 zard shows the thickness of its walls, the roughness 

 of its interior linings and reveals its content of pebbles 

 or grit and finely ground food. The grinding, moisten- 

 ing and mingling of the food fragments in this "grist 

 mill" of the bird more than make up for the lack of 

 teeth and of mastication in the mouth. The mass of 

 food becomes pulpy. 



The gizzard opens into the intestinal canal which 

 first forms a long loop enclosing the pancreas, an or- 

 gan several inches long and of pale flesh color. This 

 organ furnishes the pancreatic juice which mingles with 

 the pulpy mass of nutriment after it passes from the 

 gizzard into the intestines. The small dark almost 

 black colored gall-bladder, close to the liver, delivers 

 the bile which aids in the digestive processes. The 

 dark (bluish) red colored spleen, an organ of small 

 size found in this region has not been sufficiently studied. 

 The kidneys occupy pockets in the back of the fowl. 



The intestines, folding many times, have a length 

 of several feet in an adult fowl and occupy most of the 

 space of the abdominal cavity. A few inches from the 

 rear end of the intestinal tube, two branches of this 

 tube extend along its sides and form pockets which 

 are commonly called the "blind guts." The scientific 

 name of one of these branches is caecum and both to- 

 gether are termed the caeca. In mature fowls these 

 branches of the intestine are from five to seven inches 

 in length. Near the end of the intestinal canal an 

 enlargement occurs which is named the cloaca. The 

 tubes from the kidneys and from the sexual organs of 

 the fowl connect with the intestinal canal at the cloaca. 

 The termination of the canal is the vent. 



The total length of the digestive canal from beak 

 to vent in an adult fowl is ordinarily from four to five 

 feet. This apparatus digests most effectually all the 

 digestible portions of the food swallowed by the bird. 

 The dissolved portions pass through the walls of the 

 digestive tract into the lymphatic vessels which con- 

 tribute their contents to the blood. The indigestible 



