flUKAT IJKliON. . 63 



coats that form the gizzard of some birds; it was more loose, of 

 considerable and uniform thickness throughout, and capable of 

 containing nearly a pint; it was entirely filled with fish, among 

 which were some small eels, all placed head downwards; the 

 intestines measured nine feet in length, were scarcely as thick 

 as a goose-quill, and incapable of being distended; so that the 

 vulgar story of the Heron swallowing eels which passing sud- 

 denly through him are repeatedly swallowed, is absurd and 

 impossible. On the external coat of the stomach of one of these 

 birds, opened soon after being shot, something like a blood ves- 

 sel lay in several meandering folds, enveloped in a membrane, 

 and closely adhering to the surface. On carefully opening this 

 membrane it was found to contain a large round living worm, 

 eight inches in length; another of like length was found coiled in 

 the same manner on another part of the external coat. It may 

 also be worthy of notice, that the intestines of the young birds 

 of the first season, killed in the month of October, when they 

 were nearly as large as the others, measured only six feet four or 

 five inches, those of the full grown ones from eight to nine feet 

 in length. 



