////' DIGESTIVE APPARATUS l\ /;//;/' v ,: 



the >jili -fii and left kidney. Its ti-xtmv i* consistent, and of a greyish-white colour. Tin- 

 duct of Wirsiin^ terminates along with the ductus choledofhtis in the ampulla of Vat-r. 



3. Spleen. This is not falciform, but quadraiifrul ir ; its inferior cxtn mity is larger 

 lhan the superior. It is attached to the stomach by the great otnentum, and its inn. -r 

 face is divided into two portions by a salient ridge ; a little in front of this is a fissure, 

 the hilum lienis, by which vessels enter it. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS OF BIRDS. 



CONSTRUCTED on the same plan as that of Mammals, the digestive apparatus of Bird* 

 tin-less offers in its arrangement several important peculiarities, which will be 

 hurriedly noticed in reviewing, from the mouth to the anus, its different sections. 



Mouth The essentially distinctive character of the mouth of birds consists in the 

 absence of lips and teeth, these organs being replaced by a homy production filed 

 to each jaw, and forming the salient part termed the beak. In the Gallinacx, the beak 

 is short, pointed, thick, and strong, the upper mandible being curved over the lower. In 

 Palmipeds, it is longer, weaker, flattened above and below, widened at its free extremity, 

 and furnished within the mouth, on the borders of each mandible, with a series of thin 

 and sharp transverse laminae to cut the herbage. 



The muscular appendage, or tongue, lodged in the bticcal cavity, is suspended to a 

 remarkably mobile hyoidean apparatus. Covered by a horny epithelium, and provided at 

 its base with w\.-r: -\ papillae directed backwards, this orj;an always affects the form of 

 the lower jaw : in Poultry it is like the barbed head of an arrow, the point being directed 

 forwards : in 1'i'jeoiig this saggital form is still more marked ; in Geese and Duck*, on 

 the contrary, a7id in consequence of the wide shape of the beak, it has not this disposition, 

 and is softer and more flexible than in the Gallinacse. 



With regard to the salicary glands annexed to the mouth, they are imperfectly 

 ! d. the presence of the fluids they secrete being less necessary in birds than in 

 Mammal-, as the food is nearly always swallowed without undergoing mastication; 

 consequently insalivation is all but useless. 



(turlt 1 speaks of a y-i "/// i,land situated beneath the zygomatic arch, whose duct 



opens into the mouth behind the commissure of the jaws. Meckel names this organ the 



ir <ilind of the mouth, and says that it is difficult to regard it as representing the 



Is, any morcthan the glands of the cheeks and lips. Duvernoy 2 categorically 



assimilates it to the latt. r. 



The stililiiujiinl yl<iil* lie in the median line throughout nearly their whole extent, 

 rm an apparently i-in^le and conical mass, whose apex occupies the re-entering 

 nurd by the union of the two branches of the lower maxilla. 



'nling to Iinv'-rnoy, the submaxillary glands an tod by two very small 



organ- behind the preceding. Their existence, however, is tar from In-ing 



general ; for among common poultry, the Turkey wns the only bird in which Duvernoy 



red tin 'co. Mihmaxillary pin: 



I'M . T21, '!). This cavity is not distinct from the mouth, the soft palate 



.ntir.lv :,).-. Hi in birds. On its superior wall mav be remarked the guttural orifice 



ities : a longitudinal slit divided into two by the inferior border of the 



i: !nw is another Its-s extt-n.-ivo slit, the entrance to the larynx, and which id 



tkaMe for the complete abcen f the epiulttidciin i-perculum. 



i-iiAr.us. This canal is distinguished by its enormous calibre and great exp;< 

 1'ility. It- ry thin, and contain in their substance lenticular glands, easily Men 



in an inflated o sop hag us, in consequence of the tenuity and trail*] i 



At its origin, the cesophageal canal is not .-< para ted I'mm the pharynx by any 



.donu'--ide the long muscle of the neck, and the trarln n ; 



i ted into ihe first comportment of the stomach, or aucccntiic 



ng the thorax and posting above the origin of the bronchi, 



ir two branches. 



In r<tlmipfrif. tl e resophagus is dilated in its cervical portion in such a manner as 

 to form, when it- v. r.ll- are distended, a long fusiform cavity. 



1 ' Anatomie df r Hausvogel.' Berlin, 1840. 



r. ' Anatomie Compnree.' 2nd Edition. Tari-, is::r, 



J . 



