THE TOILET OF BIRDS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1925, Page 1

THE TOILET OF BIRDS.

(liv T. ('. fjridgcs in "Daily Mail.’’) “A bird’s |>l milage.” says .Mr <!e Vito Sm<■ j i ■ ): »1 •• in liis 101 l or upon •■l)il Refuse at Sou,"' “is purl uf its dim soul and all of its pride." lie is utterly riglii. With a bird clean I iuess comes fust, for dirt means death, liirds, says a well-known naturalist, are, tiie only creatures which bathe for cleanliness" sake.

Watch your pigeons and see how greatly they enjoy their hath. It does not matter that the roof ol the cote is blazed with hoar frost; as soon as their hath is refilled with fresh water they are splashing ill it. When they have finished the sparrows come down and take a turn.

Rubins delight in a hath, and alter a heavy shower you will see Master I?ed-hreast ducking and splashing in a elmscn puddle. Cliallinelies and thrushes are oriuallv fond of water and appreciate nothing more greatly than a freshly til loti howl laid upon t lie lawn upon a summer morning.

All the swallow tribe are bathers, and as they skim over river or pond constantly splash down into the water, starring the mirror-like surface with rings like those made by rising lish. Wild duck, again, although they spend most of their time upon salt, water, will lly far inland to find a fresh-water lake or pool where they can cleanse their plumage from the brine. Ducks and most other water-lowl possess a small gland from which they obtain an oily secretion used by them for anointing and water-proofing llieii feathers. When you see one ol your domestic ducks busily burrowing with her beak among her tail leathers you may take it that she is engaged in tapping her natural supply of vaseline. Among Kuropenn land birds the only one which is provided with a sitililat gland is the lieautifnl hoopoe.

All poultry keepers who know their business keep a dust-bath lor theii lieusi and in summer, when the birds are apt to Ik? troubled with insect parasites, you will see them half buried in dry dust, industriously working it all through their plumage. The sparraw is one ot the few birds which, although fond ot bathing in water. takes an equal delight in a dustbath. Partridges and pheasants resemble the domestic fowl in their love of a dust-bath and T have seen a whole l.ievv of quail crowding in dry sand and ruffling it through their feathers.