Page:The birds of America, volume 7.djvu/323

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LEAST PETREL.
231


ridges. The tongue is 5^- twelfths long, emarginate and serrulate at the base, very much flattened, tapering to a horny point. The heart, Fig. 1, a, is of a very elongated narrow conical form, 2 twelfths in length, 4 twelfths in breadth at the base. The lobes of the liver, b c, are equal, 6i twelfths long. The oesophagus, d e, is 1 inch 10 twelfths long, of a uniform diameter of 2jf twelfths; behind the liver, it enters as it were a large sac, f g h, 9 twelfths of an inch long, which gradually expands to a diameter of 6 twelfths, forming a broad rounded fundus g, then curves forwards on the right side, and at h terminates in a small gizzard, about 3 twelfths long, and, nearly of the same breadth, from the left side of which comes off the intestine. The latter passes forward, curving to the right, behind and in contact with the posterior surfaces of the liver, then forms the duodenal fold, h j k, in the usual manner. The intestine, on arriving at the right lobe of the liver, at k, receives the biliary duct, curves backward beneath the kidneys, and forms several convolutions, which terminate above the proventriculus. It then becomes much narrower, and passes directly back- ward, in a straight course to the rectum, which is only 4 twelfths of an inch long. The cceca are oblong, li twelfths in length, and twelfth in diameter. The intestine is 8j inches long, its diameter diminishing gradually from 2 twelfths to § of a twelfth.

Fig- 2-

Fig. 3.

In Fig. 2 are represented: — the lower part of the oesophagus, d e f; the proventricular sac, f g h; the very small gizzard, A; the duodenal fold of the intestine, ij k. Here the parts are viewed from the left side.