108 Mr. A. Newton on the supposed Gular Pouch 



all of tliem males, were dissected by order of the French Academy 

 of Sciences. Perrault, the examiner, makes no mention of the 

 existence of a gular pouch in any of them ; and his general ob- 

 servations, which are given in minute detail (Mem. de I'Acad. 

 Roy. des Sciences, tom. iii. 2de partie, pp. 99-109), fully accord, 

 as Mr. Yarrell has rightly said, with what has since been noticed 

 of the structure of the species. In 1688 (new style), a paper by 

 Dr. Allen Moulen, containing some "Anatomical Observations 

 in the Heads of Fowl," was communicated to the Royal Society 

 of London, Among the species examined were Bustards (Phil. 

 Trans, xvii. p. 714) ; but nothing like a gular pouch is described 

 as having been found. 



It is beyond all doubt that our knowledge of the supposed 

 gular pouch in the Otis tarda is due to a British anatomist — Dr. 

 James Douglas— whom Haller (Biblioth. Anatom. ii. p. 31) de- 

 signates as " vir eruditus et solers, diligentissimus incisor •/' and 

 the first mention of the discovery known to me (for Douglas, it 

 seems, did not live to announce it himself) was made in 1740, 

 by Albin (Nat. Hist. B. iii. p. 36), in the following vague terms : 

 " Dr. Douglas has observed in the Male [of the Great Bustard] 

 two Stomachs, one for the Food and the other a Reservatory for 

 Water to supply them, they feeding on dry Heaths remote from 

 Ponds and Rivers." In 1747, a fuller account and also a figure* 

 of the organ were given by Edwards (Nat. Hist. B. ii. tab. 73). 

 Writing of Otis tarda, he states, " But what is most surprizing in 

 this Bird was first discovered by the late James Douglass, M.D., 

 Fellow of the College of Physicians ; it is a Pouch or Bag to hold 

 fresh Water, which supplies the Bird in dry Places when distant 

 from Waters ; This Bag is represented blown up by the letter A. 

 I poured into it, before the Head was taken off, full seven Wine 

 Pints (which about equals seven Pounds of our common Weight) 

 before it run over. B. shows the Wind-pipe. C. the Throat or 

 common Passage of the Food. This Bag is wanting in the Hen." 



* I have not thought it necessary to introduce here a copy of this figure, 

 as it has been so often repeated in other works, many of them easily acces- 

 sible ; for instance, Daniell's ' Rural Sports,' Bishop Stanley's ' Famihar 

 History of Birds,' besides Bewick's and both the first and second editions 

 of Yarrell's ' British Birds.' 



