LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 261 



glands are placed, exceeds anything met with in the other birds that live 

 upon fish; and the turn which the cavity takes almost directly upwards, and 

 the gizzard being at the highest part instead of the lowest, are peculiarities, 

 as far as I am acquainted, not met with in any other birds of prey. This 

 mechanism, which will be better understood by examining the engraving, 

 makes the obstacles to the food in its passage to the intestines unusually 

 great; and enables the bird to digest both fishes and sea-worms with 

 crustaceous shells. It appears to be given for the purpose of economizing 

 the food in two different ways, — one retaining it longer in the cardiac 

 cavity, the other supplying that cavity with a greater quantity of gastric 

 liquor than in other birds. This opinion is further confirmed by the habits 

 of life of this particular species of bird, which spends a portion of the year 

 in the frozen regions of Nova Zembla, where the supplies of nourishment 

 must be both scanty and precarious." 



With respect to this statement and the reasonings founded upon it, it will 

 be seen from the description and accompanying figures above, taken directly 

 from nature, and without the least reference to the dissections or theories of 

 any person, that the oesophagus and stomach of the Little Auk or Guillemot, 

 Jilca Alle of Linnaeus, are very similar to those of other Auks, Guillemots, 

 Divers, and fish-eating birds in general. The cardiac or proventricular 

 cavity forms no curve; and the gizzard with which it is connected, is not 

 small, nor has it merely a small portion of the internal surface on each side 

 covered with a hard cuticular lining; for the epithelium covers its whole 

 surface, and is of considerable extent. The gastric glands are not at all 

 disposed as represented by Sir E. Home, but are aggregated in the form of 

 a compact belt half an inch broad, Fig. 2, b, c. As to the ingenious reason- 

 ing by which the economy of the Little Auk is so satisfactorily accounted 

 for, it is enough here to say, that having no foundation, it is of less than no 

 value. But were there such a curvature as that in question, there could be no 

 propriety in supposing that it presented any great obstacle to the passage of 

 the food, or retained it longer than usual. Nor is the statement as to scanty 

 and precarious supply of nourishment correct; for the Arctic Seas, to which 

 this bird resorts in vast numbers, are represented by navigators as abounding 

 in small Crustacea, on which chiefly the Little Auk feeds, and that to such 

 an extent as to colour the water for leagues. Besides, if there were such a 

 scarcity of food in Nova Zembla, why should the birds go there? In short, 

 the whole statement is incorrect; and the many compilers, from Dr. Carus 

 to the most recent, who have pressed it into their service, may, in their 

 future editions, with propriety leave it out, and supply its place with some- 

 ting equally ingenious. 



The egg of this species measures one inch and nearly five-eighths in 



