WATER BIRDS. 205 



The strictness with which the whole district is pre- 

 served by the respective owners, secures that seclusion 

 which is so congenial to the habits of wildfowl. For 

 many a mile their haunts are undisturbed save by the 

 occasional visit of the keeper, or the foot of some prying 

 naturalist ; and many a quiet summer hour have I passed 

 in observing the wild duck 



"Lead forth her fleet upon the lake," 



or in watching the gambols of the little grebe and the 

 water rail, or the glancing flight of the kingfisher ; while 

 a walk in winter would reveal in addition the pochard 

 and tufted duck, or a flock of the handsome but wary 

 goosander. 



There is one subject connected with this order that 

 has often excited my interest and occupied my thoughts 

 viz., the property which their feathers possess of re- 

 sisting wet. I have never felt satisfied as to the cor- 

 rectness of the commonly received theory that their 

 repellant qualities were owing to a dressing of oil which 

 the bird applied with its bill, and which it obtained 

 from the gland or glands which are situated on the 

 rump ; the more I thought over it and the closer I 

 observed and examined, the more convinced I became 

 that the idea was not based on fact. That the feathers 

 of such birds as seek their food on the water are water- 

 proof needs no demonstration ; and this is especially the 

 case with those whose home is on the sea, and whose 

 feathers are almost oily to the touch. 



Some birds are furnished with only one oil gland on 

 the rump, while others have two. I have taken some 

 pains to discover how this distribution is made, and 

 from an examination of a large number of species I 



