CORVUS CORAX. 281 



but is stronger than a jackdaw's ; it was filled with stones and flies. 

 The caeca are about half the length of the animal. It is of the swallow 

 kind 1 . 



[Family DENTIROSTRES.] 



The Butcher-Bird [Lanius excubitor, Linii.]. 



The butcher-bird is something of the shape and appearance of a jay, 

 and is about the size of a blackbird. Its toes and claws appear to be 

 somewhat more adapted for laying hold of objects than a magpie's, but 

 not so much as a hawk's, when we allow for difference in size. The 

 bill seems to be a mixture of both ; for it is shorter and somewhat more 

 bent than a magpie's, but is not so short, nor yet so much bent as a 

 hawk's ; and it has two small processes, one on each side of the upper 

 mandible, pretty near the point, as we see in some hawks. The head 

 is broad and flat, and the eyes large, as in all birds of prey. 



The crop and the stomach are of the hawk-kind : the duodenum is 

 as usual : the other small intestines are loose : the rectum is very short ; 

 and the two cceca are very short likewise. The termination of the 

 rectum in the cloaca is very large. The gall-bladder contained a very 

 fine pellucid bile. 



The viscera are just like a hawk's. The butcher-bird is carnivorous : 

 it killed two birds before it died. 



[Family CONIROSTRES.] 

 The Raven \Corvus corax, Linn. 2 ]. 



The glandular part of the oesophagus [proventriculus] becomes longer 

 and larger, and is continued into the stomach, which seems to be only 

 a continuation of the former. The stomach is like those of carnivorous 

 birds : it is not strong in its muscular coat, and is of a very pale red. 

 The tendinous part is very small, and hardly of a shining colour: the 

 horny substance on the inside is pretty hard, but is thin. 



The duodenum after it has made its third turn passes back, and then 

 towards the left behind the stomach ; and, when got to the left of it, 

 throws itself into concentric folds on the mesentery, which is very 

 narrow from right to left, but is very long from the root to the most 



_ 



1 [" Capritnulgus genere differt ab Hirundine, uti Strix a Falcone, Phalrena « 

 Papilione." — Linnaeus, Systema Natura3, ed. xii. torn. i. p. 346.] 



2 [The skull of the Raven is No. 1 546, Osteol. Series. The lower larynx is pre- 

 served in Hunt. Prep. Physiol. Series, No. 11G1, the upper larynx and tongue in 

 No. 1485.] 



