Diurnal Rapacious Birds. 131 
cous coat, the glandules, longer in the middle and shorter towards 
the two extremities of the organ, being 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 -f^ long, with 
a diameter of rather less than Jg. 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 T 7 j in 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 
