112 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



and much thicker than other parts of the tube, and is 

 very distinctly marked in poultry, &c. (Rasores, 

 ILLIGER). This cavity is furnished with an immense 

 number of glands, called solvent or gastric glands, of 

 a cylindrical form and placed close to each other. All 

 of these glands are hollow, and secrete a digestive fluid, 

 which is discharged from each through a small opening 

 into the cavity. In the ostrich these glands are as 

 large as garden peas, and their openings are easily 

 recognised ; the cavity itself is moreover in this bird 

 much larger than the proper stomach, so much so 

 as to induce the celebrated Italian naturalist Valisnieri 

 to term it the first stomach (primo ventricold)*. 



Cardiac cavity and gizzard of the Ostrich. 



The ostrich also differs from most other birds in the 



arrangement of these glands, which, instead of 



forming a belt or zone around the" cavity, are placed 



lengthwise in a long narrow stripe, commencing at 



* Notomia della Struzzo, p. 159, 4to. Pavia, 1726. 



