72 
PLINY S NATtJBAL HISTOEY. 
[Book XI. 
they have just swallowed, while the other is the belly, into 
which they discharge the food when it is duly prepared 
and digested; this is the case with the domestic fowl, the 
ring-dove, the pigeon, and the partridge. The other birds 
are in general destitute of crop, but then they have a more ca- 
pacious gorge, the jackdaw, the raven, and the crow, for in- 
stance : some, again, are constituted in neither manner, but 
have the belly close to the gorge, those, for instance, which 
have the neck very long and narrow, such as the porphyrio.^^ 
In the solid-hoofed animals the belly is rough and hard, 
while in some land animals it is provided with rough asperi- 
ties like teeth,^*^ and in others, again, it has a reticulated sur- 
face like that of a file. Those animals which have not the 
teeth on both sides, and do not ruminate, digest the food in 
the belly, from whence it descends to the lower intestines. 
There is an organ in all animals attached in the middle to 
the navel, and in man similar in its lower part to that of the 
swine, the name given thereto by the Greeks being colon, ^' 
a part of the body which is subject to excruciating pains.^^ 
In dogs this gut is extremely contracted, for which reason it is 
that they are unable to ease it, except by great efforts, and not 
without considerable suffering. Those animals with which the 
food passes at once from the belly through the straight intestine, 
are of insatiate appetite, as, for instance, the hind- wolf, and 
among birds the diver. The elephant has four^^ bellies ; the 
rest of its intestines are similar to those of the swine, and 
the lungs are four times as large as those of the ox. The belly 
in birds is fleshy, and formed of a callous substance. In that 
of young swallows there are found little white or pink pebbles, 
known by the name of chelidonii," and said to be employed 
in magical incantations. In the second belly of the heifer 
there is a black tufa found, round like a ball,^^ and of no 
weight to speak of : this, it is generally thought, is singu- 
^9 The coot, probably. 
^0 He alludes to the papillae of the mucous gland. 
91 The coUc. 
92 Lupus cervarius." Probably the lynx. 
93 The belly of the elephant presents five transversal folds. 
94=- See B. xxviii. c. 77. This substance, known by the name of e^agro- 
pile, consists of the hair which the animal has swallowed when licking 
itself. It assumes a round form, in consequence of the action of the in- 
testines. 
