PHEASAXTS FOR COVERTH AND AVIARIES. 



same brood. In liis letter Mr Footner recalled the fact that 

 .Sir Keiiclin Digby, ■who lived in the time of Charles I., and 

 married a lady of great beauty, used to feed his wife on 

 capons fattened on adders, which were believed to preser^'e 

 beauty. Sir Kenehn Digby, whose portrait may be seen in 

 Vandyke's Icuiioi/rajiJti/, was I'omarkable as a charlatan, who 

 ])ropoH('d to cure wounds by a]iplj'iiig a, sympathetic ]iowder 

 to the weapons they were caused liy, and who jmblished a 

 treatise " Secrets jiour la Beaute des Dames,'' from which 

 the viper ti'catLnent is extracted. 



j\lr. (t. F. Passmore, of Sjieran/.a, Fxeter, writing in the 

 Jni'ld of June 2, I'JOO, states: "An extraordina.ry fa.tality 

 occurred' t(j one of m}' hen pheasants, ci.infined with a numlji-r 

 (.)f others in a large pen, at Lambert, Hatherleigh, Noi'th 

 Devon, on Sunday, November 27, Ijetween 11 a.m. and 

 ■|. p.m. The jilieasant, when found, had swallowed about 

 (iin. of a vijjcr, whilst about Sin. of the tail ]iai't of the reptde 

 was protruding from the mouth of the Ihrd. Both the binl 

 and viper were dead." 



The structure of the digestive organs of the pheasant is 

 ])ertecrly adapted to the assmnlation of the foijd on which it 

 feeds. The sharp eilge of the ujiper mandible oi' the bill is 

 aibuh'aldy htted ior catting off ]-)orti<.ins of tlie vegetables on 

 which it pai-tly subsists, :ind tlie whole organ is equallv wod 

 adapted for secniang the various articles of its exteuMve 

 dietary. The food, when swallowed, pas.ses into a vcry 

 capacious membranous cro]i, situafed nndei- the skin at the 

 b.ii'e |>:irt ol the breast. l'"rom this <_)ri;an poitious grailuallv 

 ]iass into the trii(_' diiicstivt' stomacli, or pro\'entiiMilns ; this is 

 a, slnjrt tube, ;i,n inch and a lialF hmg, connecting the cro]) 

 witli the lii/./.ai-d. Small as this organ mm- lie, it is one of 

 extreme imjiortance, as the nunu-roiis snrill glands of which 

 It mainly consists secrete the acid dic-estivc or gastric tliiid 

 necessary to the digestion of the food; and in cases in which 

 ]ilieasants or fowls are fed on too great an abundance of 

 animal food, or any highly stimulating diet, this ore-a.n becomes 



