THE RUMPLESS FOWL. 377 



the country, I should say that the day is at no great distance when 

 the kingfisher will be seen no more in this neighbourhood, where 

 once it was so plentiful, and its appearance so grateful to every lover 

 of animated nature, where, in fine, its singular mode of procuring 

 food, contrasted with its anatomy, causes astonishment in the be- 

 holder, and cannot fail to convince him that modern ornithologists 

 were ignorant of the true nature of the kingfisher when they rashly 

 removed it from its old associates, and assigned it a place amongst 

 strangers, whose formation differs so widely from its own. 



THE RUMPLESS FOWL, 



Pauca meo gallo. VIRGIL. 



SOME time ago I introduced this bird to the readers of Mr Loudon's 

 Magazine, in order to show them that the feathers of birds are just 

 as brilliant and in as good condition on the body of one which has 

 no oil-gland, as on the body of one which is furnished with it. This 

 being really the case, I drew the conclusion, that birds are not in the 

 habit of anointing their plumage with the contents of their oil-gland. 

 The history of the rumpless fowl seems to be involved in much 

 obscurity. Buffon tells us that most of the hens and cocks of Vir- 

 ginia have no rump ; and the inhabitants, he adds, affirm that, when 

 these birds are imported, they soon lose the rump. Surely the in- 

 habitants must mean that the progeny of the imported birds lose the 

 rump. Monsieur Fournier assured the count, that, when the rumpless 

 fowl couples with the ordinary kind, a half-rumped sort is produced, 

 with six feathers in the tail instead of twelve. Buffon tells us that this 

 bird is sometimes called the Persian fowl. Perhaps it may be more 

 common in that eastern country than in France ; still, after all, I 

 find upon investigation that it is nothing more nor less than a variety 

 of the common barn-door fowl, and that it can be produced by a 

 male and female, both of which are furnished with a rump, and, of 

 course, with a tail. 



