THE BODY. 
11 
animal,* and that for this reason, also, they can eat more 
than other creatures. This harmonises with the active 
circulation of the blood, and their extreme liveliness of 
movement. Many birds feed the live-long day, as song¬ 
birds, whose daily amount of food exceeds twice or three 
times the weight of their own bodies. It is a fortunate 
thing for us that we are not blessed with such appetites, 
else we should require from two to four hundredweight of 
food per diem ! On the other hand, however, it is fortunate 
that our little fruit-, flower- and plant-protectors should 
be so voracious. Carnivorous birds do not feed in the 
same proportion; lucidly for creation their daily ration 
barely exceeds one-sixth of their own weight. Some, like 
the Vultures, devour, it is true, an enormous quantity at 
a time; but they can also fast for days after. 
According to its nature the food descends at once, 
either direct into the stomach or, first, into the crop, 
there to macerate and otherwise undergo preparation. 
The crop is, if possible, always full, and standing out 
prominently from among the feathers of the neck; this 
swollen sack presents no very elegant appearance. Other 
birds, for example, the Cranes and the green Woodpecker 
are, during the breeding season, obliged to use the 
oesophagus itself as a crop, inasmuch as they fill the 
same to the top with food. Carnivorous birds, which kill 
and devour living animals, drink but little or nothing 
after the meal; all carrion-feeders, however, and many 
reptile-eating birds, on the contrary, drink a considerable 
quantity of water. Granivorous birds do the same, so 
as to macerate the food in their crops. The digestion of 
* With fish digestion is quite as rapid; if not more so. I have often caught 
jack and perch with small fish sticking in the gullet, the upper portion being fresh, 
and the lower in process of digestion.— W. J. 
