{CSrvztsJrugilegus), 24d 



base of both mandibles. The skin where these feathers grew 

 puts on a white scurfy appearance. Now, if these feathers 

 have been worn down to the stumps by means of the bird 

 thrusting its bill into the ground, these stumps would fall out 

 at the regular moulting time, and new feathers would soon 

 make their appearance. If, again, these feathers have been 

 loosened at their roots by the process of thrusting the bill 

 into the ground (which I consider next to impossible), and 

 in consequence of this have fallen out from their places, new 

 feathers would be observed in a few weeks ; for when once a 

 feather is eradicated, nature instantly sets to work to repair 

 the loss by another ; nor do we know of any process that 

 can be applied with success, to counteract this admirable 

 provision of nature. Again, these new feathers being full of 

 blood at the roots, any application tending to grind them 

 down, or to eradicate them, would be so painful to the rook, 

 that it would not be able to thrust its bill deep into the 

 ground. 



I request the reader to bear in mind, that these arguments 

 are brought forward only under the accepted supposition of 

 naturalists, that the feathers are removed by the process of 

 the bird thrusting its bill into the ground. But he who ex- 

 amines the subject with attention will at once see that the 

 process itself could not destroy the feathers on the head of 

 the rook; because, if they were destroyed by this process, 

 the carrion crow, the jackdaw, the jay, the magpie, and the 

 starling would all exhibit a similar nudity on the forehead, 

 and at the base of the bill ; for they all thrust their bills into 

 the ground proportionably as deep as the rooks do theirs, 

 when in quest of worms and grubs. Moreover, if the fea- 

 thers are eradicated by the act of thrusting the bill into the 

 ground, they would be succeeded by new ones, during the 

 time in which that act could not be put in execution; for 

 example, during a very dry summer, or during a very hard 

 winter ; and at these periods, as no action on the part of the 

 rook would operate to destroy the coming feathers, an evi- 

 dent change would soon be observed about the head of the 

 bird. In 1814, the ground was so very hard frozen, and 

 covered with snow for some months, that the rooks could not 

 by any means have an opportunity of thrusting their bills 

 into it. Still, during this protracted period of frost, I could 

 not see a solitary instance of renewal of the feathers on the 

 forehead, or at the base of the bill, in the many birds which 

 I examined. 



I deny that the rook does, in general, thrust his bill deep 

 into the ground. Look at this bird in the pasture, through 



R 2 



