Cloaca, in Zoology, the technical name for the common terminal chamber into which the alimentary canal, the genital and the urinary ducts, all open. A cloacal chamber and aperture occurs in many fishes, in all amphibians, reptiles, and birds, and in the three lowest mammals. In all other mammals the urinogenital orifice is independent of the end of the alimentary canal or anus.
Cloaca
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 298
Source scan(s): p. 0309