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Name: Keny J
Status: student
Age: 11
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2001
Question:
When birds fly in the rain, why doesn't it hurt their eyes?

Replies:
Birds have a special third eyelid, called the nictitating membrane, under their regular eyelids. It is transparent in most birds, and is drawn across the eye to moisten or clean it. A quote repeated in the Audubon Encyclopedia of Birds: "...many ornithologists believe the nictitans is held over the eye most or all of the time that a bird is in the air - the forerunner of the motorist's goggles."

J. Elliott

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