THE STOMACH. 45 



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. 



In the upper and back part of the palate of the Ostrich, 

 there are two remarkable reservoirs from which a very tenacious 

 mucus may be expressed of infinite importance to the bird : 

 for it is so little choice in its food, that in the stomach of one 

 belonging to the King, which died at Windsor, and was 

 forwarded to the Zoological Society for dissection, some pieces 

 of wood of considerable size, several large nails, and a hen's 

 egg, entire and uninjured, were discovered j and in another, in 

 addition to some long cabbage-stalks, were masses of bricks of 

 the size of a man's fist. 



This large space and capacity of the gullet is clearly in- 

 tended to counterbalance the disadvantages of uncertain sub- 

 sistence. Thus, Herons and Cormorants will devour as much 

 fish at once as will last them for a long time. 



There is another peculiarity, too, in the gullet of fish-feeding 

 birds, that it is usually wider near the mouth, thus enabling 

 them to gulp down their slippery food in an instant, without 

 giving them an opportunity of escaping. In all these birds 

 the width and space of the gullet does away with the use of 

 the crop, which is accordingly, in this class of birds, exceed- 

 ingly small, or altogether wanting. 



The crop is furnished with a number of vessels secreting 

 an oily fluid, something similar to the liquid in the gullet 

 just mentioned. In such birds as feed their young from the 

 crop, these vessels are observed to swell considerably at that 

 particular time, in order to provide a great increase of this 

 unctuous liquid. Those who have kept Turtledoves or 

 Pigeons, must be familiar with the manner by which the 

 young birds receive their food, almost thrusting their heads 

 down the very throats of the old ones, to reach the nourish- 

 ment provided in the enormous crops of their parents, where 

 this liquid is provided in great quantity when the nestlings 

 are young; but decreases in abundance as they grow older, 

 and require less nourishing food. 



