THE GULLET. 
53 
fishing tribe, for some that live upon fruits can 
dispose of an equally surprising quantity. For 
instance, the Cedar Bird of America, a sort of Jay, 
will devour every fruit or berry that comes in its 
way; and will gorge itself to such excess, as some- 
times to be unable to fly, and may be taken by the 
hand. Some, indeed, although wounded, and con- 
fined in a cage, have eaten apples until suffocation 
deprived them of life in the course of a few days ; 
and when opened, they were found to be crammed 
to the very mouth. 
Yery frequently, in woods, or solitary places, round 
balls or lumps of semidigested substances, composed 
of small bones, claws, feathers, hair, &c., may be 
found on gate-posts or rails. These are the dis- 
carded remnants of food thrown from the gullets of 
Hawks, Owls, &c., which, if allowed to pass into 
the stomach, might remain so long in an undissolved 
state as to prove injurious to the living bird. To 
defend the tender lining of this inner passage, the 
sides and under surface of the tongue, and the upper- 
part of the gullet, are furnished with numerous 
glands, supplying a slimy moisture, which softens 
the gullet, and smooths the way for the admission 
of the hard substances which are occasionally in- 
troduced. 
In the upper and back part of the palate of the 
Ostrich, there are two remarkable reservoirs, from 
which a very tenacious mucus may be expressed, of 
infinite importance to the bird : for it is so little 
choice in its food, that in the stomach of one be*- 
longing to the king, which died at Windsor, and was 
forwarded to the Zoological Society for dissection, 
