38 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



the paunch into the second division of the stomach or " honey- 

 comb bag " so called from the fact that its walls resemble 

 honey-comb in shape (Fig. 10, ref). Here it is pressed into the 

 shape required and sent up the gullet again. On its return it 

 passes into the third division or " many-plies" (Fig. 10, ps), and 

 from thence into the " abomasum," or " reed" (Fig. 10 ab), where 

 the real work of digestion goes on. 



Though the ox and the deer have a formidable armature of 

 horns on the head, the horns are conspicuously different in 

 character. Thus these weapons in the ox are formed by bony 



FIG. 10. Dissection of the stomach of an ox, to show the separate chambers of 

 the stomach, ru, rumen or paunch ; ret, reticulum or " honeycomb " ; ps, 

 psalterium or " many-plies " ; ab, abomasum, the third or digestive stomach ; 

 py, the valve shutting off the abomasum from the intestine ; du, duodenum, the 

 first portion of the intestine ; a?, oesophagus, or gullet down which the food is 

 passed from the mouth into the stomach. 



outgrowths from the skull, and are encased in an outer sheath 

 of horn ; and hence the ox, together with the sheep, goats and 

 antelopes, are known as " hollow-horned " ruminants. The 

 horns in these animals develop early in life, and are permanent 

 structures. In the deer, on the other hand, the horns or " antlers " 

 are shed annually, and renewed again a few weeks afterwards. 

 They differ from the horns of ruminants in that when full grown 

 they have no outer case or sheath, but during growth they are 

 covered with a growth of short hairs known as the " velvet," 



