POUCH OF THE ROOK. 
55 
a pouch under the bill, quite as well defined as 
that which is seen in the rook. The idea would 
then occur to him, that ornithologists have either 
said too much, in stating that the rook is furnished 
with a small pouch at the root of the tongue ; or 
too little, in not telling us that the carrion crow, 
the jay, the magpie, and the jackdaw, are supplied 
with a similar convenience. 
The real matter of fact is this^ that naturalists 
err when they ascribe a pouch to the rook. Though 
at times there is an actual appearance of a pouch 
under the bill of the rook, and also under the bills 
of the other birds just enumerated, stilly upon a 
close inspection, it will be seen that there is no 
pouch at all in any of them. The young of all 
birds, from the size of the thrush to that of the 
wren, are satisfied with a single worm at one 
feeding, or with two at the most. Thus, in fields 
and gardens, we see an old bird catch an insect, 
and fly away immediately with it to the nest. But 
food of this scanty measure would not be enough 
for the larger kind of insectivorous birds. The 
progeny would undoubtedly require more at each 
feeding ; and, add to this, supposing the bird only 
carried one insect at each turn, too much time 
would be lost in passing to and from the nest. To 
obviate this, as birds of the pie tribe have no 
power, in health, to eject food which has descended 
into the stomach, (saving the indigestible remnants 
of alipient, which are thrown up in the form of 
pellets,) they collect a considerable quantity of 
E 4 
