CHAP, siii,] FARMING FOR LADIES. 281 



old, into a pond, nearly three hundred yards 

 from a high fir-tree, in which a carrion crow 

 had huilt her nest, containing five young 

 ones almost fledged. He took his station, 

 unobserved, at about a hundred yards from 

 the tree, and nine times the parent crows 

 flew to the pond, each time bringing back a 

 duckling to their young. 



Aquatic birds have a gland adjoining that 

 part which uncourteous people sneeringly 

 term " the parson's nose," in which there is 

 supposed to be secreted an oil, or mucus, 

 which can be pressed out by the bill, and 

 used for the purpose of anointing their 

 plumage, to guard it from the wet. When- 

 ever, therefore, the feathers are either ruf- 

 fled or exposed to rain, the bird turns its 

 head backwards, catches hold of the gland 

 with its bill, and forces out the oil, with 

 which it replaces them in due order. Thom- 

 son alludes to it in the ' Seasons,' as if were 

 a settled fact — 



" Hush'd, in sbort suspense, 

 The plumy people streak their wings with oil. 

 To throw the lucid moisture trickling off :" 



and the act is common to constant observa- 

 tion. All fowls are indeed possessed of a 



