THE ANATOMY OF THE OX. 



61 



or oesophageal opening is prolonged over the small curvature 

 of the second compartment by the medium of the oesophageal 

 canal. The inferior opening is large and it communicates with 

 the reticulum. Laterally and inferiorly it is circumscribed by the 

 free border of a kind of valve which is formed by the walls of 

 the rumen together with cells of the second compartment. 



This second stomach, or reticulum, or honeycomb, is the 



Fig. 7. 



A. The Stomach of a Sheep. B. The Stomach of a Musk Deer. CE. Gullet ; 

 Rn., Paunch: Ret., Honeycomb ; Ps., Psalterium ; A., Ab., Abomasum ; Dn., 

 Small Intestine ; Py., Pylorus. (After Huxley.) 



smallest compartment of the four into which the complex 

 stomach of the ox is divided. 



This stomach varies greatly. In the case of the reindeer and 

 the giraffe there is but very little reticulation. The reindeer 

 indeed needs little or no actual water, since the food it lives upon 

 contains much congealed vrater. The giraffe, too, eats moist 

 leaves. During lactation the second stomach is small. It is 

 slightly bent upon itself, elongated from side to side, and placed 



