312 GRALLATORES. 



The oesophagus is pretty large 1 : the gizzard is strong with a pretty 

 hard cuticular lining, but not very thick ; it contained small stones 

 dwindling to coarse sand, and the shells of shell-fish, some plainly of 

 the bivalve kind, broken into pieces : there was also found a fibrous part, 

 like the woody part of vegetables, but very small and short, as if broken 

 in pieces : whether it was sea- weed, a species of coral, or a land vege- 

 table, I could not make out. 



The duodenum passes out as usual, and makes a turn towards the 

 left for 4 niches and is then bent back upon itself, and, at the termina- 

 tion of the fold, or beginning of the jejunum, it receives the hepatic 

 and cystic ducts. From this part the gut sets out, making oblique 

 circular turns, pretty close upon one another, ten in number, each turn 

 rather becoming smaller in circumference ; and at last the intestine is 

 turned in within these turns, making similar turns within them, 

 following them back again, which of course is in a contrary direction. 

 When it has got to the upper part again, it emerges and forms the 

 rectum. 



The two caeca are each about 4 inches long, blunt at their blind end ; 

 they are involved in the fold of the duodenum. The small intestines 

 are pretty long : the rectum passes down to the increased part at the 

 anus : it may be said to equal the whole length of the cavity of the 

 abdomen. The liver has two lobes : the gall-bladder is large : the 

 ducts as in other birds. The trachea is small, its area oval ; and each 

 ring is bone. 



This bird, from the length of its legs, is a wader, and the length of 

 its neck corresponds with its legs : but the curious thing is its mode 

 of feeding. When a duck or goose feeds, or takes anything small, as 

 grain, off a surface, they lower their head and lay the lower bill almost 

 flat on the surface or ground ; so that, by the quick motion of the lower 

 bill alternately forwards, and the motion of the tongue, the food is, as 

 it were, shovelled into the mouth. But the flamingo converts his upper 

 bill into the lower in such actions : he bends his head backwards, as it 

 were, under him, instead of before him; and probably much in the 

 same manner he uses the upper jaw, as the duck, &c. use their lower 

 one ; by which means he picks up shells, sand, &c. He has also teeth 

 similar to those in the bill of a goose, &c, by which he eats his grass 

 or vegetables of various kinds, as also sea- weed, &c. ; but such he pro- 

 bably picks up in the common way. 



1 [In the flamingo dissected at the London Zoological Gardens, I found a small 

 crop: see Phys. Series, Prep. No. 524 e. Phys. Catalogue, vol. i. p. 151.] 



