GREAT HERON. 
63 
coats that form the gizzard of some birds; it was more loose, of 
considerable and uniform thickness throughout, and capable of 
containing nearly a pint; it was entirely filled with fish, among 
which were some small eels, all placed head downwards; the 
intestines measured 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 sud- 
denly 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 ves- 
sel lay in several meandering folds, enveloped in a membrane, 
and closely adhering to the surface. On carefully opening this 
membrane it was found to contain 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. 
