PECULIAR ORGANIZATIONS. 
143 
birds, than the hard bodies upon which many other species 
feed. 
We now come to particularities strictly so called, as be¬ 
ing limited to a single species of animal. Of these I shall 
take one from a quadruped and one from a bird. 
I. The stomach of the camel is well known to retain 
large quantities of water, and to retain it unchanged for a 
considerable length of time. [PI. XXVI.] This property 
qualifies it for living in the desert. Let us see, therefore, 
what is the internal organization, upon which a faculty so 
rare, and so beneficial, depends. A number of distinct 
sacks or bags (in a dromedary thirty of these have been 
counted) are observed to lie between the membranes of 
the second stomach, and to open into the stomach near 
the top by small square apertures. Through these ori¬ 
fices, after the stomach is fall, the annexed bags are filled 
from it; and the water so deposited is, in the first place, not 
liable to pass into the intestines; in the second place, is kept 
separate from the solid aliment; and, in the third place, is 
out of the reach of the digestive action of the stomach, or 
of mixture with the gastric juice. It appears probable, or 
rather certain, that the animal, by the conformation of its 
muscles, possesses the power of squeezing back this water 
from the adjacent bags into the stomach, whenever thirst 
excites it to put this power in action. 
II. The tongue of the woodpecker, is one of those singu¬ 
larities, which nature presents us with when a singular 
purpose is to be answered. [PI. XXVII. fig. 1 and 2.] It is a 
particular instrument for a particular use: and what else 
but design, ever produces such? The woodpecker lives 
chiefly upon insects, lodged in the bodies of decayed or de¬ 
caying trees. For the purpose of boring into the wood, it 
is furnished with a bill, straight, hard, angular, and sharp. 
When, by means of this piercer, it has reached the cells of 
the insects, then comes the office of its tongue; which 
tongue is, first, of such a length that the bird can dart it 
out three or four inches from the bill,—in this respect dif¬ 
fering greatly from every other species of bird; in the sec¬ 
ond place, it is tipped with a stiff, sharp, bony thorn; and 
in the third place, (which appears to me the most remark¬ 
able property of all,) this tip is dentated on both sides, like 
the beard of an arrow or the barb of a hook. The descrip¬ 
tion of the part declares its uses. The bird having expos¬ 
ed the retreats of the insects by the assistance of its bill, 
with a motion inconceivably quick, launches out at them 
this long tongue, transfixes them upon the barbed needle at 
