Question of Birds' oiling their Plumage. 161 



argument is certainly in our favour ; and we are backed in 

 our opinion by the wisdom of our ancestors, for which Mr. 

 Waterton elsewhere contends that he has so great a venera- 

 tion. I for one will vie with him in this veneration ; and I, 

 therefore, will not, for much stronger reasons than he has 

 adduced, give up, among others, the point in question, on 

 which they all agreed in days of yore. Mr. Waterton, how- 

 ever, assumes the point in question. " When," he says, " a 

 man versed in the habits of birds sees the bird do this, he 

 knows that it is trying to dislodge the vermin," &c. ; " except, 

 indeed," he parenthetically adds, " except after it has got 

 wet." What, then, I would ask (allowing even, which I do 

 not, his own argument as to the motive of birds in thus apply- 

 ing their bills to their feathers at other times), is its motive in 

 thus applying its bill when it (the bird) is wet. The answer 

 is obvious, as far as our present knowledge carries us ; for 

 even Mr. Waterton, though he endeavours to explode the 

 received opinion, advances nothing, positively nothing, in 

 proof of any other theory, but leaves the matter precisely 

 where he found it. 



But to proceed : " Will any naturalist," he asks, M say that 

 he has actually seen a bird procure liquor or oil from the 

 gland with its bill, and then apply that liquor or oil to its 

 plumage?" (Yes; T. G. of Clitheroe: see VI. 159, 160.) 

 I have before allowed that the feathers prevent our seeing 

 what is going forward ; but we are not therefore to conclude 

 that the opinion which always has obtained as to the nature 

 of the process is erroneous ; for I very much doubt whether 

 the objector himself has ever " actually seen " a bird catch 

 one of these famous insects with his bill. As well might we 

 argue, that no other globe but our own is inhabited because 

 we cannot see the inhabitants thereof walking about ; or, that 

 our earth is stationary because we cannot perceive its motion* 

 But " I marvel how the oil can be obtained by the sharp 

 bill of the bird." Why should we marvel at any such thing, 

 when we consider that the bills of ducks, and many other sea 

 and water birds, which chiefly use this oil, and to which it is 

 especially useful, are more than ordinarily broad, and the 

 better adapted for compressing any soft part of their bodies ; 

 and when we remember, moreover, that in these very birds, 

 whose constant abiding on the water requires an increased 

 supply of oil to render their feathers impervious to it, that in 

 these very birds is this gland the most developed, and the best 

 supplied with oil? Mr. Waterton proceeds, " When the 

 nature of the gland, and the form of the bill, are duly con- 

 sidered, it is rational to conclude, that the application of the 

 Vol. IX. — No. 59. N 



