144 
LITTLE GUILLEMOT. 
glands are placed, exceeds anything met with in the other birds that live 
upon fish ; and the turn which the cavity takes almost directly upwards, and 
the gizzard being at the highest part instead of the lowest, are peculiarities, 
as far as I am acquainted, not. met with in any other birds of prey. This 
mechanism, which will be better understood by examining the engraving, 
makes the obstacles to the' food in its passage to the intestines unusually 
great ; and enables the bird to digest both fishes and sea-worms with 
crustaceous shells. It appears to be given for the purpose of economizing 
the food in two different ways, — one retaining it longer in the cardiac 
cavity, the other supplying that cavity with a greater quantity of gastric 
liquor than in other birds. This opinion is further confirmed by the habits 
of life of this particular species of bird, which spends a portion of the year 
in the frozen regions of Nova Zembla, where the supplies of nourishment 
must be both scanty and precarious.” 
With respect to this statement and the reasonings founded upon it, it will 
be seen from the description and accompanying figures above, taken directly 
from nature, and without the least reference to the dissections or theories of 
any person, that the oesophagus and stomach of the Little Auk or Guillemot, 
Alca Alle of Linnmus, are very similar to those of other Auks, Guillemots, 
Divers, and fish-eating birds in general. The cardiac or proventricular 
cavity forms no curve; and the gizzard with which it is connected, is not 
small, nor has it merely a small portion of the internal surface on each side 
covered with a hard cuticular lining ; for the epithelium covers its whole 
surface, and is of considerable extent. The gastric glands are not at all 
disposed as represented by Sir E. Home, but are aggregated in the form of 
a compact belt half an inch broad, Fig. 2, b, c. As to the ingenious reason- 
ing by which the economy of the Little Auk is so satisfactorily accounted 
for, it is enough here to say, that having no foundation, it is of less than no 
value. But were there such a curvature as that in question, there could be 
no propriety in supposing that it presented any great obstacle to the pas- 
sage of the food, or retained it longer than usual. Nor is the statement as 
to scanty and precarious supply of nourishment correct; for the Arctic Seas, 
to which this bird resorts in vast numbers, are represented by navigators 
as abounding in small Crustacea, on which chiefly the Little Auk feeds, and 
that to such an extent as to colour the water for leagues. Besides, if there 
were such a scarcity of food in Nova Zembla, why should the birds go there? 
In short, the whole statement is incorrect ; and -the many compilers, from 
Dr. Carus to the most recent, who have pressed it into their service, may, 
in their future editions, with propriety leave it out, and supply its place 
with something equally ingenious. 
The egg of this species measures one inch and nearly five-eighths in 
