CHAPTER V 



ORGANS OF NUTRITION 



|N other pages we shall consider some of the things 

 upon which birds feed, and shall see how surely 

 the methods used in the search and capture of 

 this food mould the bird's structure, modifying its form 

 from beak to toe; and now is it not possible to find some- 

 thing of interest in the food after the bird swallows it? 

 Indeed even before the swallowing takes place, if we 

 watch carefully we ma}' notice something which we did 

 not before know. 



In the first place the bill of a bird is, of course, a 

 primar}^ factor, not only in procuring food, but often in 

 killing and preparing and also holding it while it is being 

 made ready to swallow. Less confusion will result, how- 

 ever, if we leave the consideration of the beaks and bills 

 to a later chapter. 



After the bill (which corresponds to our mouth and 

 lips) come the glands of the mouth and here we again 

 enter the portals of physiology,— for some unknown 

 reason dreaded by many of us, and systematically shunned, 

 as dry and ultra-scientific. On the contrary there are 

 interesting facts awaiting us in all its branches. After 

 a brief consideration of the more important, we shall 



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