110 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
appear, from their taking no notice of them, to be 
unacquainted with the observations of M. Réaumur, 
which we shall abstract. The glands on thesump, 
he remarks, secrete an unctuous fluid, discharged in 
some birds by one, and in others by two excretory 
canals. Poultry have but one of these canals, which 
consists of a conical fleshy pipe of a series of rings, 
placed almost perpendicular to the ramp; and when 
this gland is pressed by the fingers, the fluid, thick- 
ish in consistence, is seen to exude. But in a pecu- 
liar species of barndoor fowls, without tails (Gallus 
ecaudatus, 'TEMMINCK), originaliy it would appear 
from Ceylon, the tail, the rump, and the gland are 
all wanting, the part where these grow in other spe- 
cies being depressed and smooth. 
Were an attempt made to assign a reason why 
these Ceylonese fowls have no unctuous gland on 
the rump, a mistake might as readily be committed 
as has, it would appear, been done in the theory 
framed to account for the use of the gland in birds 
which possess it, All the works of nature being 
lavishly filled with wonders, fitted to raise most just 
admiration of the Creator, those who, with very 
laudable intentions, undertake to exhibit these won- 
ders, may be considered as in some degree blameable 
when they introduce into their enumeration circum- 
stances that are vague and uncertain. Among such 
doubtful things appears to be the opinion that the 
-eathers of birds require to be done over with a kind 
of oil or grease, in order to cause the rain or other 
water to run off without penetrating them, the unc- 
tion, when wanted, being supplied by the gland on 
the rump. If those who adopt this opinion, plausi- 
ble as it seems to be, had taken the trouble to ascer- 
tain the small quantity of fluid actually secreted by 
this gland from day to day, and compared it with 
the proportional extent of surface constituted by the 
assemblage of the numberless feathers of any par- 
ticular bird, not to speak of the instrument with 
