Later [in 1738], [Jacques de Vaucanson] created two additional automatons, The Tambourine Player and The Digesting Duck, which is considered his masterpiece. The duck had over 400 moving parts, and could flap its wings, drink water, digest grain, and defecate. Although the duck supposedly demonstrated digestion accurately, it actually contained a hidden compartment of “digested food,” so that what the duck shat out was not the same as what it ate.
