SCENERY OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 61 



oblong sac, an inch and three quarters in length, and ten and 

 a half twelfths in its greatest breadth. The stomach, ccZ, is small, 

 of a roundish form, considerably compressed, nine and a half 

 twelfths in length, ten-twelfths in breadth ; its lateral muscles 

 of considerable strength, one being four and a half twelfths 

 thick, the other three twelfths ; the lower muscle prominent, 

 but very thin ; the tendons large ; the cuticular lining dense, 

 longitudinally rugous, and yellowish-red. The pro ventricular 

 glands, which are very small, form a belt an inch and a quarter 

 in breadth. The intestine, d efg, is rather short, but extremely 

 wide, and destitute of coeca ; its entire length sixteen inches ; 

 the duodenal portion two inches and three quarters in length, 

 and seven-twelfths in width ; the rest of the intestine contract- 

 ing to five-twelfths ; the cloaca, ij, a very large elliptical sac, 

 ten-twelfths and a half in width. There is no gall-bladder. The 

 contents of the proventriculus are 638 insects and pupse, most 

 of them ants, four muscae, and a few coleoptera. In tho 

 stomach is a mass of the same comminuted, probably 200 more. 

 Consider how many insects a Green \V"oodpecker would at this 

 rate devour in the course of a year. Making the above num- 

 ber the daily average, we find the annual amount to be 305,870, 

 and that of twenty years 6,117,400. Very possibly the num- 

 ber may be double. How many muscular motions of climb- 

 ing, creeping, pecking, tongueing, and swallowing, one cannot 

 even imagine. What say the skin-and-feather ornithologists 

 to all this I " A knowledge of anatomy is not necessary to the 

 naturalist." No truly, not to such naturalists, to whom 

 not even a knowledge of habits is of much importance. How 

 is it that the proventriculus and stomach of a ^Voodpecker 

 should bear so considerable a resemblance to those of a PetreH 



The gentleman who has sent me the specimen which we 

 have now examined, Mr Harley, of Leicester, has also favoured 

 me with observations relative to the birds of his neighbourhood, 

 and prefaces them with a brief account of the district, to which 

 it will be useful to refer on occasion. 



" The small river Soar winds its course hard by the town, 

 turning numerous mills in its progress. After irrigrating many 

 a mead, and refreshing many a field, it falls into the Trent 



