THE STOMACH. 45 



there are two remarkable reservoirs from which a very 

 tenacious mucus may be expressed of infinite importance to 

 the bird : for it is so little choice in its food, that in the 

 stomach of one belonging to the King, which died at Windsor, 

 and was forwarded to the Zoological Society for dissection, 

 some pieces of wood of considerable size, several large nails, 

 and a hen's egg, entire and uninjured, were discovered; and 

 in another, in addition to some long cabbage-stalks, were 

 masses of bricks of the size of a man's fist. 



This large space and capacity of the gullet is clearly in- 

 tended to counterbalance the disadvantages of uncertain 

 subsistence. Thus, Herons and Cormorants will devour as 

 much fish at once as will last them for a long time. 



There is another peculiarity, too, in the gullet of fish- 

 feeding birds, that it is usually wider near the mouth, thus 

 enabling them to gulp down their slippery food in an instant, 

 without giving them an opportunity of escaping. In all 

 these birds the width and space of the gullet does away with 

 the use of the crop, which is accordingly, in this class of birds, 

 exceedingly small, or altogether wanting. 



The crop is furnished with a number of vessels secreting 

 an oily fluid, something similar to the liquid in the gullet 

 just mentioned. In such birds as feed their young from the 

 crop, these vessels are observed to swell considerably at that 

 particular time, in order to provide a great increase of this 

 unctuous liquid. Those who have kept Turtledoves or 

 Pigeons, must be familiar with the manner by which the 

 young birds receive their food, almost thrusting their heads 

 down the very throats of the old ones, to reach the nourish- 

 ment provided in the enormous crops of their parents, where 

 this lubricating liquid is provided in great quantity when the 

 nestlings are young; but decreases in abundance as they 

 grow older, and require less nourishing food. 



This portion of the digestive organs is the most capacious 

 in what is called the gallinaceous or poultry tribe, which feed 

 chiefly on grain, requiring much softening ; and there, 

 accordingly, we find the food retained, till it is sufficiently 

 softened to pass onwards to the stomach. And in this tribe 



