128 



FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



The gizzard of a Swan, opened to show its grinding surfaces. 



Our author, however, seems to have overlooked an- 

 other native bird, the little bustard (Otis minor, RAY), 

 which, according to Montagu, has an enormous sto- 

 mach, and in one he examined, this was crammed with 

 herbage*. In another examined by Selby, " the sto- 

 mach was distended by various grasses and the stems 

 of clover f." The structure of the stomach in this 

 bird leads to the conclusion that the leaves and ten- 

 derer parts of plants are readily macerated and 

 prepared in the stomach by the united action of the 

 digestive fluid and animal heat, rather than by the 

 friction of its sides. From the stomach of the little 

 bustard not being furnished with that strong gristly 

 substance, found in birds which feed on grain and 

 other hard substances that require great muscular 

 power to break or bruise them, it may be fairly in- 



*0rn. Diet. p. 299. 



t Illustrations, p. 281. 



