CLEANLINESS. 21 



and is certainly the organ which apprizes the bird of 

 any rumpling or clotting of the plumelets ; and when 

 such derangement is perceived, a pause is instantly 

 made till the part is properly adjusted. We have 

 observed a young green-bird (Fringilla chloris) 

 preening its wings as they became dry after wash- 

 ing ; and we could distinctly perceive the tongue 

 employed both for ascertaining the parts that were 

 rumpled, and for licking them straight when merely 

 passing them through the bill was found to be insuf- 

 ficient *. 



That this, though it may be considered a novel 

 statement, is notwithstanding a correct one, may be 

 corroborated analogically, by referring to the similar 

 manner in which other animals clean themselves. 

 Quadrupeds have no glands similar to those in birds 

 erroneously conjectured to furnish a dressing oil ; yet 

 the greater number of quadrupeds have their fur smooth 

 and even glossy, simply from licking it, as our young 

 green-bird was seen to do its feathers. The cattle in 

 our pastures may in this way be seen passing their 

 moist tongues over their hair ; and the elephants 

 in our menageries may be observed using the moist 

 extremity of their proboscis to clean their rough hair- 

 less skin. Even among the insects, whose habits 

 and economy are so very different, we have, at least 

 in one curious instance, remarked the process of 

 cleaning performed on the same principle by a mois- 

 tened instrument. Our readers may be pleased, by 

 way of illustration, to see the original account of this 

 instrument observed in the grub of the glow-worm 

 (Lampyris noctiluca). 



" In an excursion for the purposes of natural his- 

 tory to the woods of Dartford, in Kent, the 14th of 

 last March, I found an insect, which I had not 

 * J.R. 



