64 STOMACH OF BIRDS. 



stances that are used as food ; but they have not yet 

 tried their effects in conjunction. 



Emily. The gastric juice of the ostrich, I should 

 think, possess the solvent powers of aqua fortis; for 

 I recollect reading an account of one which was brought 

 a few years ago to New York, which on one occasion, 

 swallowed a pocket handkerchief, and afterwards swal- 

 lowed daily, gravel, bits of china ware, glass, nails and 

 other metallic substances which he picked up in the yard 

 where he was confined. Its health continued good du- 

 ring the first eight days after swallowing the handker- 

 chief, but it soon lost its appetite and died. 



Dr. B. In truth, these were truncheon feats, which 

 modern gourmands, resolute as they are, might blush to 

 hear ; unless we except a hardy son of Neptune you 

 may have heard ol five or six years ago, who was ac- 

 customed to swajlow jacknives for his shipmates' amuse- 

 ment. 



Emily. This account stated, that on examining the 

 ostrich alter death, its stomach was found quite full, and 

 distended by a quantity of partly digested grass, mixed 

 with corn and potatoes in a like state, and a great quan- 

 tity of gravel, glass, brass buttons, old nails, and a piece 

 of a small key. All which appeared to have undergone 

 a strong friction, as if they had been rubbed or polished 

 with a file. 



Dr. B. This extraordinary digestion is to be attribu- 

 ted, not solely to the gastric juice, but also to a tritura- 

 ting power of the coats of the stomach possessed by all 

 birds that live on grains and other hard fruits. The 

 stomach is composed of strong fleshy masses of muscle, 

 and possesses two distinct cavities. The first has the 

 form of an irregular oval, with strong, hard muscular 

 walls, which when in action exert an astonishing degree 

 of power. The internal surface has the hardness of horn 

 itself. Physiologists have been fond of comparing this 

 organ to a mill, the tipper part resembling the hopper, or 

 receptacle for the grain, and the two projecting oval sur- 



