34 GREAT HERON. 



On dissection the gullet was found of great width, from the 

 mouth to the stomach, which has not the two strong muscular coats 

 that form the gizzard of some birds; it was more loose, of consi- 

 derable and uniform thickness throughout, and capable of contain- 

 ing nearly a pint; it was entirely filled with fish, among which were 

 some small eels, all placed head downwards ; the intestines mea- 

 sured nine feet in length, were scarcely as thick as a goose-quill, 

 and incapable of being distended ; so that the vulgar story of the 

 Heron swallowing eels which passing suddenly through him are 

 repeatedly swallowed, is absurd and impossible. On the external 

 coat of the stomach of one of these birds, opened soon after being 

 shot, something like a blood vessel lay in several meandering 

 folds, enveloped in a membrane, and closely adhering to the sur- 

 face. On carefully opening this membrane it was found to con- 

 tain a large round living worm, eight inches in length ; another of 

 like length was found coiled in the same manner on another part 

 of the external coat. It may also be worthy of notice, that the 

 intestines of the young birds of the first season, killed in the month 

 of October when they were nearly as large as the others, measured 

 only six feet four or five inches, those of the full grown ones from 

 eight to nine feet in length. 



