Diurnal Rapacious Birds. 1 3 1 



cous coat, the glandules, longer in the middle and shorter towards 

 the two extremities of the organ, heing interposed between the coats. 

 These glandules are of a cylindrical form, and have a central cavity 

 with thick walls, and a spongy inner surface. A few of them are 

 seen enlarged at Fig. 6. Their inner extremity is narrower, and 

 they open on the mucous membrane, b, by an inconspicuous aperture, 

 placed in the centre of a small rounded eminence. See plate VI. 

 Fig. 5. The intervals between these eminences on the mucous sur- 

 face, are minutely granulate, with tortuous grooves. The fluid which 

 is secreted by these glands is of a greyish-white colour, and when 

 cold of the consistence of slightly coagulated albumen. The walls 

 of the proventriculus in the middle, narrowed towards the edges 

 above and below, the glandules in its central part being ^ long, with 

 a diameter of rather less than T ^. Its internal cavity is not wider 

 than that of the oesophagus immediately above it. 



The stomach, k, which may be considered as commencing at the 

 lower edge of the proventriculus, is of a roundish form, 3 inches long, 

 2| in its greatest breadth, somewhat compressed. Under its peri- 

 toneal covering is a large quantity of fat. Its muscular coat is thin, 

 and is composed of fibres arranged in fasciculi, which are broader in 

 the middle, or along the edges of the organ, and are inserted into two 

 thin tendinous spaces ; one on each side, about 3^ i n diameter. At 

 the upper or anterior part, these fibres diverging, leave an angular 

 space on each side, at i. The inner coat of the stomach, to which 

 the muscular fasciculi are adherent by the intervention of cellular 

 membrane, is of a dense texture and reddish white colour. The in- 

 ner surface is smooth, glossy, minutely granulate, the papillae being 

 arranged in tortuous lines. 



The oesophagus at its upper part is placed directly on the mid- 

 dle of the neck, but gradually inclines to the right side, on which 

 the crop lies unless when distended. At the lower part of the neck 

 it inclines to the left side, passes into the thorax in the centre, when 

 the trachea, c d, which passes along the left side, comes in front of 

 the oesophagus and bifurcates immediately behind the base of the 

 heart. The oesophagus continues inclining to the left side behind 

 the left lobe of the liver, and joins the stomach opposite the last ribs. 

 The stomach occupies the middle and left side of the abdomen, and 

 when distended nearly fills the half of its cavity. It is somewhat 

 nearer the sacrum than the anterior parietes. 



The pylorus, which is represented by Fig. 7 of the natural size, is 

 placed on the anterior curved edge of the stomach, as seen at /, Fig. 

 4, about half an inch from the edge of the cardiac orifice, and a 



