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 IJ 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 rubricoUis (Penn.) Red-neched Grebe. — A 
young male, showing a slight appearance of red on the 
