138 FACULTIES OP BIRDS. 



the means of subsistence, which the peculiarity of its 

 faculties will augment or abridge. Thus the spoon- 

 bill seems formed for gathering* shell-fish ; the small 

 flexible strap and the reflected arch of the avoset's 

 bill reduce it to live on fish-spawn ; the oyster-catcher 

 has an axe-shaped bill, calculated for opening the 

 shells ; and the crossbill could not subsist were it not 

 dexterous in plucking the scales from the fir-cones. 

 Lastly, the shearbill could neither eat sidewise, nor 

 gather food, nor peck forwards ; its bill consisting of 

 two pieces extremely unequal, the lower mandible 

 being long and extended disproportionately, projects 

 far beyond the upper, into which it falls like a razor 

 into its haft*." 



Even leaving the peculiar form of the bills out of 

 consideration, the organization of the stomach, and 

 of other internal parts, is so different in birds which feed 

 on animal food from what it is in those that feed on 

 vegetables, as to lead to a similar conclusion. It is 

 well known that ruminating animals, such as the cow 

 and sheep, have a quadruple stomach, or rather a 

 series of four stomachs ; while those which feed on 

 animal substances, as the cat and swine, have only a 

 single stomach, which is besides more simple in 

 structure. A similar difference of organization oc- 

 curs among birds, as we shall now detail, beginning 

 with carnivorous birds which have the most simple 

 stomachs. 



The first peculiarity which strikes an observer in 

 the organs of carnivorous birds is the great width of 

 the gullet, for the purpose, it would appear, of facilitat- 

 ing the deglutition of large pieces of food, and also the 

 regurgitation of feathers and other substances which 

 cannot be readily digested. In the golden eagle 

 (Aquila chrysaetas, ALDROVAND), for example, the 

 gullet is dilated near its termination, and there is a 

 * Oiseau*, Art, Le 13ec-en-Ciseaux. 



