136 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



of bird creation. In seven wonders of wild life, I 

 think I would give it a place ; and a place, too, on the 

 list of seven beauties. Think of the precision with 

 which the millions for millions there are of branches 

 and sub-branches of the bird's plumage must fit into 

 place to achieve this surface of smoothness equal to 

 polished ivory ! About the neck and throat and part 

 of the head of a scaup duck there is little appearance 

 of feathers just a surface of shining green and black. 

 Yet the bird is constantly shaking itself with the 

 violent action of a dog, and, doing so, it disturbs and 

 puffs out its whole plumage. And, the shake over, 

 each feather, each particle of each feather, slips back 

 at once into the exact place where it should be. A 

 little of this marvel is done by the preening of the 

 bird's own bill but a very little. If the mallard or 

 the scaup duck depended on its bill for smoothness, it 

 need be furnished with a bill incomparably finer and 

 more sensitive than that which it has. An occasional 

 detail of this toilet of smoothness is certainly done by 

 the bird's own bill, here and there a plume awry set 

 straight; perhaps though I am very doubtful oil 

 may be drawn from the duck's oil-glands, and applied 

 to the feathers where needed ; but for the most part it 

 is mechanical ; the feathers adjust themselves. 



Barbs, barbicelles, all the hair-fine lines and hooklets 

 of that wonderful vane we call a feather, are set with 

 a mathematical accuracy past our understanding. 

 Here are order and regularity on a scale of precision 



