. The bird, its form and function . h we are likely to find. What a boon to a business man who indulges in adaily firemans lunch, if his masticatory functioncould be an internal and unconscious one, as in a bird! A crocodile, which has so much in common with abird, is provided with a gizzard, which, like that of achicken, is round, muscular, and has two great side ten-dons, and no less than five pounds of grinding-stoneshave been found in one of these reptiles. Many interesting adaptations are found in the stom-achs of birds, made necessary by special requirementsin the diet. As an instance of
. The bird, its form and function . h we are likely to find. What a boon to a business man who indulges in adaily firemans lunch, if his masticatory functioncould be an internal and unconscious one, as in a bird! A crocodile, which has so much in common with abird, is provided with a gizzard, which, like that of achicken, is round, muscular, and has two great side ten-dons, and no less than five pounds of grinding-stoneshave been found in one of these reptiles. Many interesting adaptations are found in the stom-achs of birds, made necessary by special requirementsin the diet. As an instance of this, the snake-bird has Organs of Nutrition I 39 a dense mat of hair at one end of the stomach, the freeends of which point outward, brush-like, and preventthe accidental entrance of any small fish-bones whichotherwise might get into the small intestine. The giz-zard of a cuckoo, when opened, often gives the impressionof a similar coating of hair lining the entire organ, butthese are in reality only the hairs of caterpillars upon. Fig. 107.—Cluster of matted hairs in the stomach of a Snake-bird. which these birds feed, which have become detachedand have lodged in the folds of the gizzard lining. When considering the crops of birds we noticed thecurious way in which a pigeon feeds its young, by re-gurgitating a cheesy substance which forms in its crop,and we will now speak of something still more remark-able. The strange nesting habits of the hornbills areforeign to this volume, but we cannot leave the subjectof gizzards without touching on the manner in whichthe male birds of this group probably feed their impris- 140 The Bird oned mate and young. I say probably, because no onehas seen them do this, but as in captivity the operationoccurs repeatedly during the breeding season, there canbe but little doubt concerning its evident walling up his mate and her egg in some hollowtree, the male hornbill takes upon himself the labour ofsupplying her with food thr
Size: 2007px × 1245px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1906
