on the Digestive System of Birds. 235 
of the former group, he would not, I think, have insisted so 
strongly on the absolute isolation of the “ Ratite” from all 
other living birds*. 
Dr. Gadow justly regrets the small amount of attention 
that has been paid of late years to the anatomy of birds, and 
particularly, as he says, to the digestive system. But he 
seems to be unacquainted with the work done lately in this 
country by Prof. Garrod, as in the list of papers quoted by 
him but two of that anatomist’s are mentioned. Hence no 
account is given of some of the most peculiar variations that 
are known to occur in the alimentary canal of birds, of, for 
instance, the peculiar proventriculus and ceca of Chauna 
(though Dr. Crisp’s paper on this bird is quoted), and of 
the extraordinary stomachs of the species of Plotus. No 
allusion is made to the tongue of Nestor; and the old state- 
ments as to the universal absence of a gall-bladder, or, at all 
events, its only exceptional presence as an individual variety, 
in the Parrots and Pigeons, are repeated. 
In the second part Dr. Gadow commences with the different 
forms of the same organs throughout the series of birds. In 
a tabular statement of the correlation of the nature of the 
ceca to the nature of the food, Phenicopterus is included as 
one of the “ Fleisch u. Fische” eaters. But, according to 
Mr. Salvin and other authorities, the major part of the food 
of these birds consists of the vegetable matter that grows at 
the bottom of the lagoons which they frequent (vide Dresser, 
B. of Eur. pts. 75, 76). The length and width of the alimen- 
tary canal, the relative size of its various parts, the influence 
of the food on the canal as a whole, and the variations in its 
length in birds of the same species, both young and old, are 
then discussed. The concluding part of the paper is devoted 
to a description of the disposition of the convolutions of the 
intestines; and this is decidedly the most novel part of Dr. 
Gadow’s work, previous accounts of this subject being very 
meagre. 
Excluding the Ratite, Dr. Gadow distinguishes three chief 
* “Tass aber.... Ueberginge der 4 noch lebenden Ratitenfamilien 
unter einander und auch zu den Carinaten ganzlich fehlen,” tom. cit. p. 107, 
R2 
