266 THE RUMPLESS FOWL. 
But though its vital spark has fled for ever, still its 
outer form will remain here, probably for ages yet 
to come. I dissected it; and then I restored its 
form and features in a manner that may cause it 
to be taken for a living bird. This fowl now stands 
along-side of a common barn-door hen, which had 
assumed the plumage of a male, and whose fate 
has already been recounted in Mr. Loudon’s Ma- 
gazine of Natural History. She has been furnished 
by nature with an oil-gland, and a handsome tail ; 
he has been deprived by nature of both these 
appendages. Still, his feathers are as glossy, and 
in as high condition, as those of his companion. ‘I 
consider this fact as conclusive evidence against 
the received opinion, that birds make use of the 
contents of the oil-gland, in order to lubricate their 
feathers. If they really did make use of it, the 
state of the plumage on one of these birds ought 
to bear marks of its application. 
Before I can be convinced that birds lubricate 
their feathers, i must require him, who inspects 
these two fowls (with a magnifying glass, if he 
chooses), to point out to me a difference in the 
plumage of the bird with an oil-gland, from that of 
the bird without one. When he shall have done 
this, I will yield, and willingly confess, that a close 
attention to this subject, for a very long time, has 
availed me nothing, and has only been the means 
of leading me into an evident error. 
