HOW A BIRD DRESSES. 63 



look untidy — but more serious things happen to a bird who 

 does not comb his feathers. 



These feathers are not packed close together, you 

 know, but lie loose, and have places between filled with 

 air. When a bird wants to get warmer he lifts his feath- 

 ers so that these air spaces may be larger , but if his feath- 

 ers are tangled or wet and dirty he could not raise them, 

 and soon he could not keep the heat in his little body, and 

 would die, of course. 



Perhaps you have noticed sparrows or other birds in the 

 winter time. They always look larger, but they have only 

 fluffed out their feathers because the weather is cold. Mr. 

 Canary does the same thing when he goes to bed at night. 

 A water bird has to be even more particular about his 

 clothes, for if he should get them wet he would die of cold. 



It seems odd, does it not, that he can go in the water 

 and not get wet? It is a fact, though, and it is only be- 

 cause he oils his feathers. All water birds have an oil 

 can, or oil gland, as it is called, located down among his 

 tail feathers, and after he has smoothed himself carefully 

 he reaches his head down to the oil gland and gets a nip 

 of oil in his bill and with it he oils his feathers with the 

 greatest care. If he does it properly the water will run off 

 and not soak in the least bit. Just watch a duck when 

 you get a chance and see how he does it. — Mihvaickee , 

 Wis., Sentinel. 



The height at which birds fly, even in the finest weather, is apt 

 to be grossly exaggerated, since well-meaning but inaccurate peo- 

 ple commonly talk of seeing wild fowl " miles high," oblivious of 

 the fact that their normal vision would never at such a range in- 

 clude birds at all. Baloonists have better opportunities for some- 

 thing like exact observations however, and some aeronauts have, 

 in fact, recorded interesting statistics of bird altitudes. Thus, 

 Hargesell, of Strassberg, encountered an eagle at the prodigious 

 height of two miles (more exactly, 3,280 yards) while he also found 

 storks and a buzzard at something just short of i,oco yards. 



