THE ROOK'S BILL. 



ground. Look at this bird in the pasture, through a good glass (this 

 puts me in mind of the professor's suggestion of a thermometer and 

 a stop-watch), and you will see that he merely pulls up the tuft of 

 grass with the point of his bill. When on arable land, he will be 

 observed to thrust his bill comparatively deeper into the mould, to 

 get at the corn, which having just put up its narrow greenish-white 

 leaf, the searcher is directed by it to the sprouted grain. But he 

 cannot be at this work above a fortnight : the progress of vegetation 

 then interferes to stop the petty plunderer. 



The quao of South America, a bird of the order of Pie, has a still 

 greater portion of the forehead bare ; and it must have put on this 

 uncouth and naked appearance in early youth, for, on inspecting the 

 head, you will see that feathers had once been there. I could never, 

 by any chance, find this bird in the cultivated parts of the country. 

 It inhabits the thick and gloomy forests, and feeds chiefly upon the 

 fruits and seeds which grow upon the stately trees in those never- 

 ending solitudes. In fine, I consider the accepted notion, that the 

 rook loses the feathers of its forehead and those at the base of each 

 mandible, together with the bristles, by the act of thrusting its bill 

 into the ground, as a pretty little bit of specious theory, fit for the 

 closet ; but which, in the field, " shows much amiss." 



For my own part, I cannot account for the nudity in question. 

 He who is clever enough to assign the true cause why the feathers 

 and bristles fall off, will, no doubt, be able to tell us why there is a 

 bare warty spot on each leg of the horse ; and why some cows have 

 horns and some have none. He will possibly show us how it came 

 to happen that the woman mentioned by Dr. Charles Leigh had horns 

 on her head ; which horns she shed, and new ones came in their 

 place. Perhaps he will account for the turkey's putting out a long 

 tuft of hair, amid the surrounding feathers of the breast. Peradven- 

 ture, he may demonstrate to us why the bird camichi, of Guiana, has 

 a long slender horn on its head, and two spurs in each wing, in lieu 

 of having them on its legs. By the way, who knows but that some 

 scientific closet naturalist may account for these alar spurs of the 

 camichi, through the medium of that very useful and important dis- 

 covery, the quinary system. Thus, for example's sake, suppose these 

 said spurs were once normal or typical on the legs ; but, by some 



