Birds, 7103 



tinge. Claws black. A comparison of the dimensions of this female with McGilliv ray's 

 description of the female osprey shows how much smaller our bird is. Ours tallies 

 more nearly with the description in the ' Fauna Japonica ' of the variety from Japan, 

 spoken of as the Pandion Haliaitus orientalis, which is referred to Gould's Australian 

 species, Pandion leucocephalus. The bird is known to the native fishermen as the 

 He-pew or Fish-tiger. I was much delighted the other day in watching a pair of 

 avocets feeding in the mud at the head of ihe harbour. They walked steadily, the one 

 following the other, flourishing their beaks from side to side through the mud with a 

 measured and graceful motion, recalling to mind somewhat the play of mowers' scythes 

 as the mowers slowly advance in order through a field of grass. The idea, however, 

 may be rather fanciful. I did not shoot the birds, but I have no doubt that they were 

 the true recurvirostra, a specimen of which I have received from Swatow, a few miles 

 down the coast. This is the first winter that I have procured the sanderling and turn- 

 stone, two birds almost cosmopolite in their distribution. Among specimens of the 

 former I can find no difference in size from those in McGillivray. The bird at first 

 sight looks like a Tringa with its ordinary tints partially washed out, but a closer 

 examination shows many points of difference. The forehead is full and round, almost 

 as in the Charadriadae. The beak is short, broad, black, and polished at the end. 

 The feet are broad and rough, and the hind toe minus. I have two specimens of the 

 Strepsilas Interpres, a male and a female, and as they difi'er somewhat, though triflingly, 

 in size from the British bird, I will here mention measurements taken from the 

 fresh examples : — 



Length. Wing. Tail. Bill. Tarsus. Mid-toe. Claw. 

 Female ... 9 5^ 2i ^ 1,^ Jg i| 



Male. . . . 8,% 5^ 2^ |o i^ ^ ^ 



The bill in both sexes is of a dark bluish or neutral tint, approaching to black. Inside 

 of mouth flesh-colour, with more or less brown. The male is blacker and brighter in 

 tints, and has its legs of a fine bright orange-red, whereas these tints in the female 

 are tinged with a dull brown. — Robert Swinhoe; British Consulate, Amoy, February 21 , 

 1860. 



The Oil-gland in Birds. — Many and many a time have I communed with you on 

 the oil-gland of birds ; I will now resume the subject, without, however, quoting a 

 single line from my old grandmother's library in support of its supposed uses, or 

 adverting to remarks in the pages of a late periodical, now happily defunct, to the 

 manifest advantage of orthodox Ornithology. It so happens that I have daily, and I 

 may add hourly, opportunities of watching narrowly the habits of some forty barn- 

 door fowls. All these birds, with now and then a few ducks in company, are ever- 

 lastingly preening every part of their plumage which can be reached through the 

 application of the bill. Let us take the common notion for granted, that birds do 

 actually squeeze a substance from the gland and then apply it to the plumage, although 

 I defy any living man to declare that he has ever detected the smallest portion of this 

 mysterious lubricating fluid, either in the bill of the bird or on the plumage. Now 

 all and every one of these forty birds may be seen applying their bills to their rump, 

 and all, without a single exception, using the same mode in the general preening of 

 their plumage, precisely the same mode. Well, but three of these birds have no tail, 

 and of course no oil-gland. Still, after the operation of preening has been gone 

 through, the feathers of these three birds are beautifully glossy, and no eye can 



