164- Obituary. 



swer this question ; and will, at the same time, take my leave 

 of his paper in V. 412 — 415., only adding, that the gland 

 about which so much has been said has been dissected by 

 eminent anatomists, has been found to be supplied with oil, 

 and to be furnished with an excretory duct; certainly very 

 strong presumptive evidence as to its use in the economy of 

 birds, especially when coupled with the fact that Mr. Water- 

 ton, in VI. 275., states his total ignorance of any other use it 

 can be of. In VI. 277, &c, Mr. Waterton has a few more 

 remarks on the same subject ; but, in my opinion, the facts 

 mentioned in V. 159, 160., by eyewitnesses of the operation, 

 in reply to Mr. Waterton's former theory on the subject, are 

 more than sufficient to set the matter at rest. 

 BeecJifield House, Doncaster. 



PS. — T. G. of Clitheroe, in his account of the Muscovy 

 duck, as quoted above, VI. 159, 160., has mentioned that he 

 saw it erect the feathers from the gland when wanting to ex- 

 tract the oil. What says Mr. Waterton to this ? And I 

 have, since writing the above, seen tame ducks do the same ; 

 then apply the bill to the gland, and then to the feathers. 

 w Auto boa" (Aristoph.). The thing speaks for itself. 



Art. XII. Obituary. 



Died, on Jan. 1. 1836, the Rev. George Beading Leathes, 

 A.M., at Shropham, Norfolk, aged 58, after a paralytic affec- 

 tion, which occurred to him on the Christmas-day preceding, 

 while officiating in the duties of public worship at Shrop- 

 ham Church, and from which he did not recover. He was 

 distinguished for the interest which he took in objects of 

 natural history, especially plants and fossils, for the extent of 

 his knowledge of them, and for the cordiality with which he 

 excited and promoted a kindred interest and knowledge in 

 others. Hisown collection of living plants, his museum, and his 

 library, were indexes of the extensive measure of his affection 

 for subjects of natural history ; while Smith's and Sowerby's 

 English Botany, Sowerby's Mineral Conchology, the Norfolk 

 and Norwich Museum, the Bury St. Edmund's Botanic Gar- 

 den, the Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural Society, the 

 Bury St. Edmund's Horticultural Society, and the collections, 

 both of plants and fossils, of his scientific friends, the Rev. 

 T. Rogers, Lackford; the Rev. T. Image, Whepstead; and 

 others; and for fossils, doubtless, the collections of his scien- 

 tific friends, Mr. S. V. Wood, Woodbridge, and Mr. S. W^ood- 



