PECULIAR 0E.aANIZAT10NS l67 



We now come to particularities strictly so called, as be- 

 mg limited to a single species of animal. Of these, I shall 

 take one from a quadruped, and one from a bird. 



I. The stomach of the camel is well known to retain 

 large quantities of water, and to retain it unchanged for a 

 considerable length 'of time. This property qualifies it for 

 living in the desert. Let us see, therefore, what is the 

 internal organization upon which a faculty so rare and so 

 beneficial depends. A number of distinct sacs or bags — in 

 a dromedary thirty of these have been counted — are observed 

 to lie between the membranes of the second stomach, and to 

 open into the stomach near the top by small square aper- 

 tures. Through these orifices, after the stomach is full, the 

 annexed bags are filled from it : and the water so deposited 

 is, in the first place, not liable to pass into the intestines ; in 

 the second place, is kept separate from the solid aliment ; and 

 in the third place, is out of the reach of the digestive action 

 of the stomach, or of mixture with the gastric juice. It 

 appears probable, or rather certain, that the animal, by the 

 conformation of its muscles, possesses the power of squeezing 

 back this water from the adjacent bags into the stomach, 

 whenever thirst excites it to put this power in action. 



II. The tongue of the tcood^oecker is one of those singu- 

 larities which nature presents us with when a singular 

 purpose is to be answered. It is a particular instrument for 

 a particular use ; and what, except design, ever produces 

 such ? The woodpecker lives chiefly upon insects lodged in 

 the bodies of decayed or decaying tree.s. For the purpose of 

 boring into the wood, it is furnished with a bill straight, 

 hard, angular, and sharp. When, by means of this piercer, 

 it has reached the cells of the insects, then comes the office of 

 its tongue ; which tongue is, first, of such a length that the 

 bird can dart it out three or four inches from the bill — in 

 this respect difi^ering greatly from every other species of bird ; 

 in the second place, it is tipped with a stiff', sharp, bony 

 thorn ; and, in the third place — which appears to me tht^ 



