134 The Bird 
of digestion lower down. 
Here, as in many other in- 
stances, we have a condition very similar to that in some 
reptiles—crocodiles in particular. These ravenous scaly 
creatures have such powerful organs of digestion that even 
bones are dissolved, but the stomach is comparatively 
small, and when a crocodile makes a large meal, it is at 
first stored away in the wide gullet. 
The Stomach and Gizzard 
In the present chapter we might easily be led into 
Fie. 105.—Caracara, showing crop dis- 
tended with food 
or formed of two more or 
details which would strand 
us in the midst of dry 
technicalities, but we will 
try to avoid all this and 
choose only the interesting 
facts. 
The chief organ of di- 
gestion, in birds as in other 
animals, is of course the 
stomach. In many _ fish- 
eating birds this organ is 
merely a simple, more or 
less enlarged chamber, rather 
crop-like except that it con- 
tains numerous digestive 
glands. 
The typical bird-stom- 
ach, however, is compound, 
less distinct parts. The first 
