PSEASANTS FOB COVERTS AND AVIALIES. 



The structure of tte digestive orgaiis 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. Prom this organ portions gradually 

 pass into the true digestive stomach, or proventiculus ; 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 digestiv^e or gastric fluid 

 necessary to the digestion of the food ; and in cases m 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 frequently the result. From the pro- 

 venticulus the food passes into the gizzard, which is lined 

 with a dense thick skin ; 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 ground 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 nourish- 

 ment for the support of the animal is extracted ; this being 

 greatly aided by the operation of the two caeca, 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 wing, 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 



