46 INTERNAL STRUCTURE. 



repast, if hungry, devour as many fish as would suffice for 

 half-a-dozen people; and, like the Gulls above-mentioned, 

 will in confinement snap up rats and other small quadru- 

 peds. The Gannet, another fishing bird, has been known 

 to swallow an entire cod of moderate size, and a Puffin 

 kept in a menagerie to eat as much fish as its whole body 

 weighed. Well might the eye-witness to such an extra- 

 ordinary exhibition of gluttony declare, that " he never 

 saw BO unsatiable a devourer;" and what was still more 

 surprising, "that the body did not appear to swell the 

 bigger*." Of the destructive character of Herons with 

 regard to fish some idea may be formed, from no less than 

 five eels having been found in the stomach of one which 

 was shot. Voracity is not, however, entirely confined to 

 the fishing tribe, for some that live upon fruits can dis- 

 pose of an equally surprising quantity. For instance, 

 the Cedar Bird of America, a sort of Jay, will devour 

 every fruit or berry that comes in its way; and will 

 gorge itself to such excess, as sometimes to be unable 

 to fly, and may be taken by the hand. Some, indeed, 

 although wounded and confined in a cage, have eaten 

 apples until suffocation deprived them of life in the 

 course of a few days ; and when opened, they were found 

 to be crammed to the very mouth. 



Very frequently in woods, or solitary places, round 

 balls, or lumps of semidigested substances, composed of 

 small bones, claws, feathers, hair, &c., may be found on 

 gate-posts or rails. These are the discarded remnants 

 of food thrown from the gullets of Hawks, Owls, &c., 

 which, if allowed to pass into the stomach, might remain 

 so long in an undissolved state as to prove injurious to 

 the living bird. To defend the tender lining of this inner 

 passage, the sides and under surface of the tongue, and 

 the upper part of the gullet, are furnished with numerous 

 glands, supplying a slimy moisture which softens the 

 gullet and smooths the way for the admission of the 

 hard substances which are occasionally introduced. 



* EVELYN'S Memoirs. 



