GREEDY BIRDS.
The appetite and digestion of birds have astonished many of us. Even that romantic bird, the woodcock, will consume its own weight of food within twenty-four hours : and most birds, however light and airy, are quite the opposite in habit of Shelley's chameleon, which fed solely on "light. and air." But the species differ. I have often had experience of particular examples of the pigeon's power of appetite, and therefore of digestion. In one case a crop was filled to the point of extension with hazel nuts in their shells ; but all records would seem to be passed by pigeons shot recently in Sussex. The crop of one bird contained fifty-seven acorns and another thirty-three. The birds had swallowed some of the acorn cups as well as the nut itself. A student for a scientific diploma at Oxford announced recently that the special subject she had selected for her thesis was "the digestion of the ostrich," a subject to which experiences in South Africa had attracted her. The digestion of the wood pigeon seems to be as worthy of investigation.
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