and the man from the sewers , unburdened by reflections on the supreme breakability and brokenness of the pigeons mortal shell , lunged at the cooing pigeon and with gestures more automatic than thought through bit off its dangling head and had some of the blood and availed himself of the left wing , and the sewer man clamped his mouth ravenously and did not bother plucking the wing clean but spat the feathers out , which was not the simplest of endeavours since the feathers were now sticky with blood and flesh and saliva and this made the browncoat see the sewer mans mouth as a bird itself , an amorphous hatchling yawning with a beak greater than its own being and blind and stupid and discoloured and incoherent and sticky and confused in its raving disconsonant plumage .