TASTE OF GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 133 



M. Monibeillarcl thinks the ostrich swallows stones 

 and metallic substances with the view of ballasting its 

 body for running-, as bees and storks have been 

 fabulously asserted to carry stones for a similar 

 purpose*. The alligator of South America is another 

 anomalous instance of a similar kind. The Indians 

 on the banks of the Oroonoko assert that, previously 

 to an alligator going in search of prey, it always 

 swallows a large stone, that it may acquire additional 

 weight to aid it in diving and dragging its victims 

 under water. An officer in the Colombian Navy who 

 mentions this, tells us, that being somewhat incredu- 

 lous upon the point, (how could he be otherwise ?) 

 he was satisfied of the fact by Bolivar, who, in order 

 to convince him, shot several alligators with his rifle, 

 and in the stomachs of all of them were found stones 

 varying in weight according to the size of the animal. 

 The largest killed, he says, was about seventeen feet 



in length, and had within him a stone wei^hinff from 



iii 

 sixty to seventy pounds j I 



Whatever may be the object of the ostrich, there 

 can be no doubt of the fact of its swallowing stones 

 I and metal, even red hot iron J, it has been asserted, 

 though Albertus Magnus upon trying the experiment 

 could not prevail on one to swallow bits of iron . 

 M. Perrault found in the stomach of an ostrich seventy 

 doubloons, most of them worn down and reduced to 

 three-fourths of their size, the corrosion being con- 

 fined to the convex side which was most exposed to the 

 attrition of the gizzard. Those which swallowed copper 

 were evidently poisoned by it, for they soon died ||. 



Vallisnieri, in his admirable account of the ostrich, 

 informs us that bits of wood, iron, or glass, which 



* See Insect Architecture, p. 42. 



f Recollections of Venezuela. 



} Marmal, Description d'Afrique. Hist. Anim. 



|] Mem. Acad, des Sciences, 1705, &c. 



