ROOK. 149 



brought to me. It appears that they manage to subsist 

 well, notwithstanding the cold weather ; for, on open- 

 ing the body, we were surprised to find it in most 

 excellent condition, with the stomach, intestines, and 

 other abdominal viscera, completely covered with 

 layers of fat. The stomach itself was unusually dis- 

 tended, and projected externally below the extremity 

 of the breast-bone like a large egg. The contents 

 proved to be turnip and wheat, mixed with a few 

 gravels. The turnip was in a semi-digested state, 

 but easily identified by the smell : the grains of 

 wheat were whole, and scarcely at all altered. The 

 stomach was completely full of this mixed food, and 

 stuffed as tight as a pin-cushion. 



From the large size of the stomach in this indivi- 

 dual, we were induced to measure it, and found it 

 five inches in circumference, and two inches and- 

 a-half in length. Whether this organ is always as 

 large in the rook, and whether it is usual to find it 

 so low down in the cavity of the abdomen as in the 

 present instance, I am not aware ; but it had a very 

 remarkable appearance in this bird, and such as I 

 never witnessed before in any other species. At the 

 same time, it is possible that it may have been due 

 to nothing else than to its being so unusually dis- 

 tended with food. 



We made a few other anatomical memoranda with 

 respect to this bird, as follows : Pylorus eight lines 

 below the cardiac opening; oesophagus, with the 

 lower part a little dilated, but, on the whole, of 

 tolerably uniform character throughout its length ; 

 intestinal canal three feet long, furnished at the 



