The quail is exceptional in regard to
these organs, as compared with other birds; in other words, it has a
crop, and at the same time its oesophagus is wide and spacious in
front of the stomach, and the crop is at some distance, relatively
to its size, from the oesophagus at that part.
Further, in most birds, the gut is thin, and simple when loosened
out. The gut-appendages or caeca in birds, as has been observed, are
few in number, and are not situated high up, as in fishes, but low
down towards the extremity of the gut. Birds, then, have caeca-not
all, but the greater part of them, such as the barn-door cock, the
partridge, the duck, the night-raven, (the localus,) the ascalaphus,
the goose, the swan, the great bustard, and the owl. Some of the
little birds also have these appendages; but the caeca in their case
are exceedingly minute, as in the sparrow.
Book III
1
Now that we have stated the magnitudes, the properties, and the
relative differences of the other internal organs, it remains for us
to treat of the organs that contribute to generation. These organs
in the female are in all cases internal; in the male they present
numerous diversities.
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