STRIX FLAMMEA. 279 



two points. Query, whether or not this is the proper penis, making a 

 kind of groove for the passage of the semen ? 



The liver is but small ; the duets enter at the last turn of the duo- 

 denum, about a | of an inch from one another. The hepatic is the 

 first that enters, and is the smallest ; the cystic, at the beginning, is 

 pretty large, but becomes smaller. The pancreases are two, at the 

 end next to the liver ; but they unite at the other end, which does not 

 pass so low as the second turn of the duodenum ; from that lower end 

 of the pancreas, passes the duct which enters the duodenum at that 

 part, about an inch beyond the second turn. The abdomen is wider 

 and shorter than in other birds, which makes the viscera more compact. 



The motion of the eye must be very little, for the eyeball filled up 

 the whole socket ; so much so, indeed, that it was with difficulty that I 

 could extract the eye. The crystalline humour of the eye of an owl is 

 almost round ; this renders this animal near-sighted, which property is 

 calculated for seeing in the dark. One who is long-sighted cannot see 

 objects in the dark, because they are then not to be seen at a distance ; 

 and, when near, the eye is not adapted to them. The retina does not 

 come so far forwards in this bird as in many others : — not near so far 

 forwards as in the quadruped. This is probably owing to the shape 

 of the anterior part of the eye being almost a cylinder, and the 

 retina comes no farther forwards than where the eye is becoming glo- 

 bular. There is a distance between the anterior edge of the retina to 

 which the nigrum pigmentum is attached, and the processus ciliares, 

 making a circle that has no pigmentum x . 



Of an Owl [Strix flammea, Linn. ?]. 



In an owl the stomach is a good deal of the common shape [in 

 birds], but is white and thin. The liver is as usual, as well as the ducts ; 

 that is, the hepatic and cystic do not enter together, but separately. 

 The caeca were as long as in a hen [common fowl], in proportion to the 

 size of the body : there was a little cavity either before or behind the 

 rectum, as in a swan or hen. This owl was a cock, and this cavity 

 [bursa Fabricii] was thrown into rugae 2 . 



1 [Hunt. Preps. Phys. Series, Nos. 1749, 1755, 1798.] 



2 [See Hunt. Preps, of the bones of an owl, Phys. Series, Nos. 210, 211, 212 ; of 

 the tongue, No. 1481 ; of the eye, Nos. 1750, 1751 .] 



