INTERNAL STRUCTURE. 51 



lower end only reaching the stomach, whilst the rest 

 continues in the gullet, and slips down gradually, 

 in proportion as these lower ends are consumed. 



The usual food of Gulls consists of flesh; but 

 when confined, they will thrive very well on a diet 

 with which they must be perfectly unacquainted 

 by the sea side. We may form, too, some idea of 

 their voracity, frcni the quantity consumed by a 

 Gull kept and fed in a garden, which devoured, in 

 one day, fourteen mice and two rats. Another was 

 seen to swallow an entire rat, an operation, however, 

 not accomplished without some difficulty, the bird 

 making several efforts before it succeeded, and even 

 then the tall reniaind visible for several minutes. 

 But the voracity of Gulls is exceeded by some other 

 fish-eating birds. Thus the Pelican, it is said, will 

 at one repast, if hungry, devour as many fish as 

 would suiiice for half-a-dozen people; and, like 

 the Gulls above-mentioned, will, in confinement, 

 snap up rats aad other small quadrupeds. The 

 Gaiinet, another fishing bird, has been known to 

 swallow an entire cod, of moderate size; and a 

 Puffin, kept in a menagerie, to eat as much fish as its 

 whole body weighed. Well might the eye-witness to 

 such an extraordinary exhibition of gluttony declare 

 that "he never saw so unsatiable a devourer," and, 

 what was still more surprising, " that the body did 

 not appear to swell the bigger'"." Of the destructive 

 character of Herons, with regard to fish, some idea 

 may be formed, from no less than five eels having 

 been found in the stomach of one which was shot. 

 Voracity is not, however, entirely confined to the 



* Evelyn's JMemoirs. 



E2 



