64? 
OIL GLANDS OF BIRDS. 
thin solution of gum arabic had really been oil from 
the gland, the feathers would have appeared as if 
they were in a sweat, the oil would have penetrated 
down their shafts, the fingers of the dissector would 
have come in contact with grease or oil at every 
touch, and the whole plumage would have been 
completely spoiled. 
Much safer would it have been for the writer to 
have had recourse to conjecture, in this affair of a 
general coating on the whole plumage of the eagle. 
The bird might have received on its plumage a coat 
of slime from a fish, struggling and flouncing at its 
capture, or in the pangs of death ; the eagle, after 
bringing his prey ashore, might have rolled upon it, 
as we know dogs do upon carrion. In either of these 
cases therfe would have been a coating on the plum- 
age, somewhat resembling a solution of gum arabic, 
while wet ; and, when dry, it would have fallen into 
dust at the touch of the hand ; and the feathers 
would have recovered their downy appearance. In 
fine, oil or grease on the plumage ought never to 
have been mixed up in the strange account of the 
eagle ; which would come but poorly off if handled 
by a severe critic. 
