130 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



constriction, formed by muscular fibres, between the 

 cardiac cavity and that of the gizzard ; there is also a 

 canal leading from the cardiac cavity, the gizzard 

 forming a pouch projecting from the posterior side ; 

 so that the food does not necessarily go into the 

 gizzard, but may either do so, or pass on into the 

 duodenum, and this most probably at the will of the 

 bird. The cuticular lining extends a little way below 

 the cavity of the gizzard, and terminates upon the 

 edge of a broad valve, which maybe considered as 

 its boundary, separating it from a large oval cavity 

 about four inches long. The oblique valve between 

 the cardiac cavity and the gizzard retains the food, 

 and allows the liquor of the solvent glands to mix 

 with it before it enters the gizzard, and probably a 

 great part of it never enters this cavity at all. The 

 passage from the digestive organs is so free, that the 

 stones swallowed for the use of the gizzard readily 

 pass into the intestines, which is not the case in 

 others ; and these intestines are wider and shorter 

 than in any other bird. The fact of the stones 

 passing along the intestines I learnt from Sir Joseph 

 Banks, who, while he was visiting the menagerie at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, was much astonished to see 

 a cassowary, which was feeding very voraciously on 

 fruits, void a large quantity of stones, some of them 

 of considerable size. 



" The cassowary of New South Wales (Dromiceius 

 Nova Hollandice, VIEILLOT), as it lives in a country 

 naturally fertile, but less luxuriant than Java, has its 

 digestive organs formed on the same principle ; but 

 differs in this particular, that the solvent glands are 

 larger in size, although similar in structure. They 

 are placed in regular transverse rows ; the gizzard is 

 thicker, has a stronger lining, and is rather more in 

 the direct line of receiving food from the cardiac 

 cavity," while " the passage from the stomach to the 

 intestine is less open. 



