570 



GALLINID.E. 



from the one to the other, we find that they are all 

 different. Of the species which are best known as 

 migrant birds in Europe, the greater number are from 

 the south-east of Asia, the common country of the 

 domestic cock, the peacock, and at least all the more 

 gaily dressed species of pheasants. In Africa we 

 have the Guinea fowl, and in America, the most cha- 

 racteristic bird is perhaps that which has been, ab- 

 surdly enough, called the " Turkey," as if it had come 

 from quite another part of the world. 



All these birds of the warmer and the tropical lati- 

 tudes are more of woodland birds than the majority 

 of the northern ones ; and though they all feed, and 

 most of them nestle, on the ground, they are, generally 

 speaking, perchers ; and so strong is this habit in them 

 that even those which have been domesticated from 

 time immemorial retain it, and always, if they can, 

 mount to a perch for the night. 



Such is the geographical distribution of the leading 

 members of the order ; and it will not fail to occur to 

 the reader that they are most abundant in those 

 places of the world which are also the chief native 

 haunts of the ruminating mammalia. Indeed, in as 

 far as there can be a resemblance between birds and 

 mammalia, there is a considerable resemblance be- 

 tween the gallinidse and the ordinary ruminantia ; 

 and it would not perhaps be any very great stretch of 

 fancy to trace a resemblance between the camel 

 family of the ruminating animals and the ostrich 

 family. The gallinidee, like the ruminants, are all 

 feeders upon the ground ; and although the mam- 

 malia are by no means so miscellaneous in their 

 feeding as the birds, but confine themselves more 

 exclusively to vegetable substances, yet the birds 

 prefer vegetable food when they can find it properly 

 suited to their taste. There is even a coincidence 

 between the sections of the one order and those of 

 the other, which is too striking for being overlooked. 

 Those of both which are most homeward, and inhabit 

 the fattest pastures, have the flesh most tender and 

 delicate, and the human stomach can bear it for the 

 greatest length of time ; while those which are more 

 distant and shy in their inhabiting have the flesh of 

 higher and more pungent flavour, but less congenial 

 to the stomach. A person in good health could 

 contrive to dine daily, for a long time, upon beef or 

 barn-door fowls, but would soon tire if wholly confined 

 to venison and grouse, or even pheasants. 



There is something very pleasant, and not a little 

 worthy both of remark and of admiration, in those 

 natural coincidences. Those things, whether of the 

 animal or the vegetable kingdom, which are capable 

 of furnishing man with the most abundant, the most 

 nourishing, and the most wholesome food, are the very 

 ones which come> of their own nature and instinct, 

 the nearest to the place of his abode. It is impos- 

 sible not to perceive in this that there is an express 

 provision for man in the very arrangement and system 

 of nature ; and that, if he will but take the trouble of 

 observing and knowing all the powers and productions 

 of nature around him, it will succeed and reward his 

 exertions, and beacon the way to farther knowledge 

 and more complete enjoyment. 



Nor is it less worthy of attention, that there is 

 always a corresponding beauty which accompanies 

 utility in these matters. The orchard, the corn-field, 

 the meadow, and the down, are associated with so 

 many pleasurable feelings, that the very mention of 

 them is music to the ear ; and every feeling of rural 



innocence, and full abundance, and beauty, and happy 

 content, is linked with the thought of the bleating 

 flock and the lowing herd. The poultry-yard, too, 

 has its charms ; and if there be no crowing, and 

 cackling, and gabbling, in the neighbourhood of a 

 farm-house, or of any residence in the country, a 

 heavy sense of desolation comes over the mind. 

 Neither must we despise the sounds given out by the 

 wilder species of this order. The sound of the wings 

 of partridges, and their soft clucking cry when they 

 "jug" in the field, and invite each other to the com- 

 mon safety and the common shelter, have something 

 delightful in them. They are sounds which are heard 

 only in the land of plenty ; and the feeling of fertility, 

 and all the joys which it brings arise whenever those 

 sounds are uttered. 



It is not, of course, to be supposed that there can 

 be much internal resemblance between the gallinidae 

 and ruminating animals, because the feeding and 

 digestive organs of birds differ much, taken on the 

 whole, from those of the mammalia. But there is 

 some resemblance. The gallinidso have, generally 

 speaking, three stomachs, and their intestines are 

 more lengthened than those of most birds, and 

 furnished with two caecal appendages about six 

 inches in length. These three stomachs are the craw, 

 or pouch, into which the food is taken, as into little 

 more than a simple store, where it is sent gradually 

 to the other parts of the digestive apparatus. In this 

 viscus the food undergoes very little change, though 

 it may be partially softened. This craw opens 

 laterally from the gullet. The second stomach is a 

 dilatation of the gullet itself, and is furnished with 

 glands which secrete a peculiar fluid ; and it is here 

 also that the drink of the birds mingles with the food. 

 The third stomach is the gizzard, the texture of 

 which is very strong and muscular, and the inner 

 coat so hard and compact, as to have the appearance 

 of firm cartilage. This viscus can exert a very 

 powerful action, so powerful as to grind down glass 

 and metals in a very short time, without appearing to 

 sustain any injury. It is into this part of the struc- 

 ture the small stones and gravel are taken along 

 with the food. The precise office which these per- 

 form in the digestion of the animal is not accurately 

 known, but there is every reason for believing that it 

 is very important ; for it has been ascertained, by 

 actual and repeated trial, that some of the order, 

 the pheasants, for instance, can thrive as well on half 

 the quantity of food, when they have free access to 

 gravel, that they require when they have no such 

 access. The inference of course is, that the gravel 

 must, in some way or other, double the digestive 

 powers of the bird, inasmuch as they enable it to 

 draw equal, or even superior nourishment, from only 

 half the quantity of food, but those assisting matters 

 never substantially add anything to the nourishment. 

 We have, however, already alluded to Spallanzani's 

 somewhat whimsical comparison of this gizzard to a 

 corn-mill, though it does not exactly hold, as the 

 gizzard, which may be considered as the one mill- 

 stone, grinds the others as well as the food, and the 

 gastric juice afforded by the glands of the second 

 stomach is mixed with the food before it reaches the 

 gizzard ; so that, if the action of it is a grinding action, 

 it is not " dry -grinding," but rather resembles beating, 

 or kneading in a mortar, along with a solvent fluid, 

 which aids in rendering the harder substance. 



We shall now very shortly mention the general 



