28 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



bankers far behind in their prejudice. There is an 

 amount of pliability about a quill pen never to be found 

 in one of steel. An almost equally important use for 

 quills is the manufacture of toothpicks, thousands of 

 gross of this useful little article being consumed every 

 year in England alone. The largest toothpick factory 

 in the world is near Paris, which is said to turn out 

 twenty millions every year. All these uses to which 

 birds are applied may seem simple in themselves ; 

 yet they furnish employment for a ereat number of 

 people before the finished articles reach the consumers' 

 possession. 



Before dismissing this portion of our subject, we 

 would call attention to another small but important 

 use to which birds are applied, and that is the manu- 

 facture of fat and oil from their bodies. In some 

 districts great quantities of these products are got from 

 birds at St. Kilda, for instance, where the natives 

 increase their income from this source. The oil from 

 the Fulmar is much used in the Highlands of Scotland 

 as a sheep-dressing, being preferred to any other 

 substance ; and in many parts of the country it is held 

 in high repute as a cure for rheumatism. The fat boiled 

 out of the bodies of the young Gannets from the Bass 

 Rock is a valuable product to the proprietor of that 

 island. Guano should also be mentioned as a very 

 valuable product of the bird world. It is composed 



