110 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



appear, from their taking no notice of them, to be 

 unacquainted with the observations of M. Reaumur, 

 which we shall abstract. The glands on the rump, 

 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 rump ; 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 

 ecaudatusj TEMMINCK), originally 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 

 feathers 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 



