366 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



apparent the mass of feathers never could be passed by 

 the bowels ; whereas the cardiac opening of the stomach 

 was large, with a large glandular proventriculus, forming a 

 band 1J inch in breadth. It was manifest, therefore, this 

 mass was simply a " pellet" of feathers, and the indigestible 

 parts of its food, ready to be cast up by the mouth. From 

 the lower bowel there were two caeca, one If, the other 2J 

 inches in length. 



Macgillivray, in his " History of British Birds," says, " Its 

 food consists of fishes of various kinds, aquatic insects, 

 reptiles, and Crustacea. Along with remains of these are 

 usually found in the stomach numerous large curved feathers, 

 which it probably picks up as they float on the water, 

 and which are no doubt intended to facilitate digestion." 

 How, he does not tell us. 



In Professor Fleming's " British Animals" we are told 

 that he found in the stomach of a young Podiceps cornutus 

 " a concretion upwards of half an inch in diameter, con- 

 sisting of its own belly feathers, closely matted together. 

 Montagu, in his Supplement, states, that he observed the 

 same occurrence in the red-necked and crested species. Are 

 these to be considered as analogous to Bezoar s ?" 



Yarrell, in his " British Birds," alludes to " this habit of 

 the grebes swallowing feathers alone," and says it " appears 

 to be peculiar to the grebes only. From fish bones being 

 found occasionally mixed up with the feathers, there is cause 

 to suspect these birds bring up the more indigestible part 

 of their last meal, as hawks, &c, are known to do." 



From their anatomical structure, there cannot be a doubt 

 of the fact of this bird bringing up pellets, and the presence 

 of the feathers will rather facilitate the completeness of the 

 operation ; being possibly swallowed for the very purpose of 

 assisting to clear out or brush away from the inside of the 

 stomach the indigestible and spiny portions of the skins of 

 Crustacea, fish bones, &c, which, without some arrangement 

 of this kind, might cause considerable trouble and uneasi- 

 ness to get quit of. 



(7.) Podiceps rubricollis (Penn.) Red-necJced Grebe. — A 

 young male, showing a slight appearance of red on the 



