Organs of Nutrition 133 
captivity, owls and hawks are never so healthy and active 
when fed on fleshy meat alone, as when a dead mouse or 
sparrow, rat or pigeon is given occasionally. In dissecting 
specimens which have had nothing but a flesh diet for a 
year or more, I have found the throat and gullet in a very 
bad condition, as if the lack of some scouring process, 
Fic. 104.—Food-pellets ejected by Great Horned Owl, containing 
remains of rodents. 
such as is afforded by the pasage up and down of the 
indigestible hair and feathers, had actually resulted in 
the death of the bird. I have seen owls try to eat the 
straw on the fioors of the cages, when not provided with 
food in the condition in which they find it when at lib- 
erty. 
In cormorants and birds of similar voracious fish-eating 
habits, the entire gullet serves as a receptacle for food, 
while the fish first swallowed are undergoing the process 
