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THE LUBRICATION OT BIRD?. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
ARTICLE XV. 
ON BIRDS LUBRICATING THEIR PLUMAGE. 
BY A SUBSCRIBER. 
Most of your readers have heard that aquatic birds lubricate them¬ 
selves with an oil, procured from a gland, situate near the rump, for 
the purpose of keeping their plumage impervious to the water. I 
am induced to take up this subject by the perusal of an able and in¬ 
genious article from the pen of Mr. Waterton, published in the 
magazine of Natural History, for June last. Mr. W. in the above- 
mentioned article flatly denies that birds do anything of the sort 
and ascribes, as the reason of their constantly rubbing their bills up 
and down their feathers, that they are only cleaning themselves from 
the insects, &c. which infest them. It certainly is rather bold to at¬ 
tempt at one stroke to upset what Linnaeus, Buffon, Montagu, Rennie, 
and a host of naturalists have advanced, and which has hitherto been 
considered a settled point, but I think Mr. W’s reasons are so con¬ 
clusive that I am induced to coincide in this opinion. Mr. Water- 
ton’s principal objections to birds lubricating themselves are 
That the bird could not extract the oil from the gland, without 
much pain, on account of the hardness of the bill, and the softness 
of the gland. That the oil, even if extracted, would spoil the plu¬ 
mage. Mr. W. has tried this. 
That the head and neck could not be anointed, and that these parts 
would require it as much as the others. 
To the first of these objections I am not inclined to give much weight, 
inasmuch as different birds have different shaped bills, and until you 
know whether the uncdous fluid is discharged voluntarily or not, 
how can we judge whether any pain is caused to the bird or not. I 
much doubt whether the application of the hard bill of the bird to 
the soft gland would cause any pain. 
Mr. Waterton has had ocular demonstration of the second objec¬ 
tion. [See his remarks.] 
The third objection, namely, that the birds, admitting they do lu¬ 
bricate at all, cannot apply the oil to the head and neck, is more im¬ 
portant, for no one can for a moment suppose that the very small 
quantity of oil which could be obtained by rubbing the neck, on the 
