THE PIGEON BOOK 47 



at a bird not as an individual object but as an individual 

 made of many parts, each of which has its special 

 function to perform. 



Thus the beak, the tongue, the oesophagus, the crop, 

 the ventricle succulent, the liver, the gizzard, the gall, 

 the duodenum pancreas, the small intestine, the caecum, 

 the large intestine, the ureters, the oviduct, and the rec- 

 tum all perform their respective parts to give nutrition 

 to the subject. 



The health, the condition, and the very life of a pigeon 

 depend upon the organs of nutrition doing their work 

 well and effectively. 



After being eaten the food passes into the crop. 

 The crop is simply a store to enable a bird to carry 

 food from its feeding ground to its nest. 



From the crop the food passes into the stomach (ven- 

 tricle succulent). 



Viewed from the front, this has the appearance of a 

 small subterranean passage leading from the crop to the 

 gizzard. 



In the crop the grain becomes softened and swollen in 

 the water mixed with it. After this and during its 

 passage through the stomach to the gizzard it is impreg- 

 nated with gastric juice. It then passes into the gizzard, 

 which is really the second stomach, or last stage of corn 

 in its complete form, for although swollen in the crop 

 and mixed with gastric juice in the stomach, it remains 

 whole corn, and affords no nourishment to the bird until 

 it reaches the gizzard. The gizzard is the true jaw of 

 the pigeon, and here it is that digestion has its seat of 

 action. In the gizzard, by the help of grit and its con- 

 tractions, corn is reduced to a pulp and afterwards dis- 

 charged into the intestines. The intestines are composed 

 of two parts, the small and the large intestine. 



