LIVER IN BIRDS. 191 



in the muscular system. The liver is upheld by the adjacent 

 viscera, and is fixed by doublings of the peritoneum. The tint 

 varies in different species, but the essential colour is a reddish 

 brown. 



The gall-bladder lies between the two lobes of the liver, some- 

 times closely clinging to the organ, sometimes loose and pen- 

 dulous. It is oval in some, in others of round form, and, as in 

 mammals, has its fundus placed undermost. In some birds, as 

 in the pigeon, the parrot, and the ostrich, there is no gall- 

 bladder. 



In birds, for the most part, the hepatic duct does not unite 

 with the cystic duct, or duct from the gall-bladder, but opens 

 separately into the duodenum. In short, there is no commu- 

 nication between the two ducts ; whence the bile found in 

 the gall-bladder does not reach that receptacle by regurgitation, 

 as is the case in mammals, but gets there directly from the 

 biliary vessels in the liver by means of hepato-cystic ducts, 

 which open either into the fundus or neck of the gall-badder. 

 Such ducts, besides conveying bile into the gall-bladder, serve 

 to connect it more firmly with the liver. 



The bile of birds resembles in its sensible characters the bile 

 of mammals. What has been asserted of the bile is probably 

 correct namely, that the only difference in the composition of 

 the bile of different animals is in the varying proportions in 

 which the taurocholic and the glycocholic acids respectively 

 exist. The bile of birds does not appear to have been exten- 

 sively examined. The bile of the goose is said to contain 

 almost exclusively taurocholic acid. 



Pancreas or Sweetbread. The pancreas in birds lies be- 

 tween the turns of the duodenum. It is inserted, as it were, 

 between the two portions of the curvature of the duodenum. 

 It has the same direction as that curvature, and when inflex- 

 ions exist in the curvature it makes corresponding turns. It 



