DIGESTIVE ORGANS— POWER OF PLIGHT. 



in a letter published in Loudon's Magazine of Natural Sistory, vol. vii., p. 163, 

 relates tliat Sir John Ogilvy saw a pheasant flying off with a common slowworm 

 {Angmsfragilis); that this reptile does sometimes form part of the food of the pheasant 

 is confirmed by Mr. J. E. Harting, who recounts, in his work on "The Birds of 

 Middlesex," that "on examining the crop of a pied pheasant, shot in October, 1864, 

 I was surprised to find in it a common slowworm {Anguis fragilis) which measured 

 eight inches in length. It was not quite perfect, having lost the tip of the taU; 

 otherwise, if whole, it would probably have measured nine inches." 



The structure of the digestive organs of the pheasant is perfectly adapted 

 to the assimilation of the food on which it feeds. The sharp edge of the upper 

 mandible of the bill is admirably fitted for cutting off portions of the vegetables 

 on which it partly subsists, and the whole organ is equally well adapted for securing 

 the various articles of its extensive dietary. The food, when swallowed, passes into 

 a very capacious membranous crop, situated under the skin at the fore part of the 

 breast. From this organ portions gradually pass into the true digestive stomach, 

 the proventriculus of the anatomist; this is a short tube, an inch and a half long, 

 connecting the crop with the gizzard. Small as this organ may be, it is one of 

 extreme importance, as the numerous small glands of which it mainly consists secrete 

 the acid digestive or gastric fluid necessary to the digestion of the food; and in all 

 cases in which pheasants or fowls are fed on too great an abundance of animal food, 

 or any highly- stimulating diet, this organ becomes inflamed, and death is the result. 

 Prom the proventriculus the food passes into the gizzard, which is lined with a 

 dense thick skin or cuticle ; in its cavity the food is ground down to a pulp, the 

 process being assisted by the presence of the numerous small stones and angular 

 pieces of gravel, &c., swallowed by the bird. The food, thus grpund to a pulp, passes 

 on into the intestines, which are no less than six feet in length; in the upper part 

 of this long canal it is mingled with the bile formed in the liver, the pancreatic 

 fluid, &c., and, as it passes from one extremity to the other, the nourishment for 

 the support of the animal is extracted ; this being greatly aided by the operation of 

 the two cseca, or blind intestines, which are very large in all the birds of this 

 group. 



The flight of the pheasant is strong, and is performed by rapid and frequent 

 beats of the wings, the tail at the same time being expanded. The force with 

 which the bird flies may be inferred from the result which has not unfrequently 

 occurred when it has come into contact with thick plate glass in windows. A 

 correspondent states: "A few days ago, a cock pheasant rose about three hundred 

 yards from my house and flew against the centre of a plate glass window, smashing 

 it into a thousand fragments. The glass was 3ft. Sin. by 3ft. 4in., and Jin. thick; 

 and such was the force of the concussion that not a single piece remained six 

 inches square. A slight snow on the ground rendered the window more than usually 



