52 THE STOMACH. 



consider this as an accidental occurrence; but it is by no 

 means so; they do it, like the Ostrich, for the purpose 

 of assisting the powers of the gizzard in grinding the 

 shells and outer coats of the grains, so as to render them 

 fit for final digestion. In the stomach of a Turkey-hen, 

 nearly one hundred stones have been counted, and in 

 that of a Goose, a still larger number; but these are 

 nothing to the extraordinary contents of a common 

 fowl's stomach, in which were found three pieces of 

 flint, three metal buttons, fourteen nails, several of 

 which were very sharp, in addition to a great number of 

 small stones*. The coat of the bird's stomach, with 

 the exception of some slight scratches on the inner mem- 

 brane, was in its natural state; probably, however, if 

 the gizzard had been closely examined, it would have 

 been found diseased or defective in its operations, thus 

 inducing the fowl to make up its deficiency by so unna- 

 tural an addition. Sir James Ross in his interesting 

 voyage of discovery towards the South Pole, mentions 

 having found in the stomach of one of the " Great 

 Penguin," (Apterodyies Forsteri,) the frequenters of high 

 southern latitudes, from two to ten pounds weight of 

 pebbles, consisting of granite, quartz, and trappean 

 rocks, swallowed, no doubt, to assist them in digesting 

 the various species of crustaceous animals on which they 

 feed. 



But the best way of understanding its curious mode 

 of working, will be, to follow the progress of a meal 

 swallowed by a fowl, between whose stomach and that 

 of a corn-mill, naturalists have traced a very close re- 

 semblance. The grain is first passed by the gullet into 

 the craw, which may be compared to the hopper of the 

 mill, through which the grain is gradually emptied on 

 the grinding-stones. There, as we have seen, it remains 

 a certain time, till it is considerably softened; and then, 

 not all at once, but in very small quantities, in propor- 

 tion to the progress of trituration, just as the hopper 



* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. III., p. 206. 



