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APPENDIX. 



up the supposed evidence of its failure in your vinegar- 

 bottle, to be squirted at me, on some future day, through 

 the medium of the Doctor's Cyclopcedia ? 



Your theory on parts of the plumage of birds is very 

 unsound. 



In speaking of the vulture you remark, " But that those 

 parts of the bird which come in contact with its offensive 

 food should not be soiled and matted together ; the whole 

 of the head (and particularly a great part of the neck) 

 is entirely destitute of feathers." 



When you made this erudite discovery in Nature's 

 economy, were you quite ignorant that the little feathery- 

 footed bantam, whose plumage reaches beyond the toes* 

 may be seen half-leg deep in dirty ditches, and at the 

 mouths of the filthiest sewers? — Why, then, should 

 careful Dame Nature deprive the vulture of a cravat 

 lest it should be soiled by carrion ; and at the same time 

 supply the bantam with warm stockings, which she well 

 knew would be encrusted with nastiness whenever there 

 was an opportunity to walk into it ? The Dame, too, 

 ought to have deprived the rough-haired spaniel of his 

 shaggy waistcoat; for she must have known that this 

 brute would anoint himself with purulence from rotten 

 carrion, as often as within his reach. 



Your lucubration on the eyes of the owl comes next 

 under consideration. 



" The eyes of this bird," you say, " in the first place 

 are of enormous size." Nobody doubts it. " But as if 

 this was not sufficient," you continue, "they are sur- 

 rounded with two large concave disks, generally com- 

 posed of white and shining feathers, for the purpose of 

 concentrating a greater extent of light, to be reflected 

 upon the eye, which is placed in the centre. There can 

 be little doubt on this being the true use of the facial 



