8960 Birds. 
twenty to thirty years ago, before sheep farming and turnip cultivation had worked 
their wonders on the “ Wolds,” and even in the “ Carrs” of this Riding, the bittern 
used to be of common occurrence; so much so, indeed, that a farm-house situated on 
a particular bend of the river, known as Eske, was formerly called “ Butterbump 
Hall,” from the continuous booming of these birds which lived around it. It is now 
exactly fourteen years since a specimen of this bird has been seen on our river or in 
our neighbourhood. The specimen I allude to was stuffed, and still belongs to the 
man who shot it, Mr. James Runton, of the Leven Carr, near Beverley. I dissected 
my specimen, and was wuch struck by certain facts thus revealed. The bird was 
loaded with fat, and yet there was no food in the stomach, with the exception of a 
very small beetle and a little confervoid weed: thus I infer (as the specimen was shot 
about mid-day) that the digestion, as in the snipe, is very rapidly completed, for the 
confervoid remains had probably been swallowed with the last food taken, and not as 
food. The small beetle was most probably entangled in the weed, and taken 
unconsciously, being too small a prey to tempt so large a bird singly. I may here 
refer to a remark I made on my dissection of Scolopax major (Zool. 8890). I was 
astonished to find the gizzard containing seeds and vegetable matters only. The 
most probable explanation of this, I think, must be, that such ingesta are swallowed 
by the Grallatores inadvertently with their food, which is rapidly digested and passes 
from the stomach for the requirements of assimilation more speedily than the useless, 
or almost useless, matters swallowed at thé same time. Having remarked on its con- 
tents, I must now describe what struck me as the great peculiarity of the stomach 
itself, for this bird has a true stomach, similar, so far as appearances are concerned, in 
all essential parts and powers, to that of an animal, aud only resembling in one 
respect, and that very slightly, the ordinary gizzard of a bird. The stomach is of a 
more or less oval form, and is suspended, like a bag, in the body of the bird: it is 
narrowest at the cardiac or esophageal end, gradually dilating towards the opposite, 
or pyloric end; at the pyloric extremity the organ dilates into a somewhat considerable 
pouch, capable of containing a quantity of food, and the capacity of the organ is also 
further increased by a certain amount of elasticity in the walls themselves. The walls 
of the stomach are very muscular, in proportion to the size of the organ, and in this 
respect only does it somewhat resemble the ordinary gizzard of birds. Externally is 
an arrangement of longitudinal muscular fibres, interlaced with others of either spiral 
or circular direction: this layer is thin. In the centre is a great thickness of muscular 
tissue arranged in bundles side by side, which take a circular direction, embracing the 
circumference of the organ: when cut across, these bundles in their appearance 
remind one of a piece of “ crimped skate,” more than anything else I know. Internally 
to this layer lie the mucous digesting membranes, with their glands, &c., and the 
surface presented is precisely similar to the internal digesting surface of the stomach 
of any ordinary mammal. The duodenum, or first portion of bowel, is also highly 
organized and provided with glands and a villous surface. As might be expected, in 
conjunction with such a highly organized stomach, evidently digesting, rather than 
merely triturating its contents, after the manner of most birds, I found a lengthened 
and complicated intestine. The intestine was in the diameter of its cylinder, very 
narrow, but it was of remarkable length, and in consequence of this circumstance, as 
well as to economise space, was closely convoluted on itself, coil upon coil. The 
length from pylorus to anus was five and a half feet. I have preserved both the 
stomach and intestines, in spirit, should any of your correspondeuts desire to inspect 
