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Show 72 t:EX.UAL SELECTION: BinDS. PART 11. ornaments, though not always ornamental in our ey s; for whilst the male is in the act of courting the female, they often swell and assume more vivid tints, as in the case of· the male turkey. At such times the fie hy appendages about the head of the m.ale Tragopan pheasant ( Oe?·io?·nis temminckii) swell mto a large l.appet on the throat and into two horns, one on each side of the splendid top-knot; and these are then coloured of the most intense blue which I hare ever beheld. The African hornuill ( Bucorax abyssinicus) inflat~s t~e scu.rlet bladller-like wattle on its neck, and with Its wings drooping and tail expanded" makes ~uite a w·u.nd '' appeamnce." 61 Even the iris of the ey~ Is sometimes more brightly coloured in the mu.le t~au m the female; ::Uld this is frequently the case with the beak, for instance, in our common black-bird. In Buceros cor?" ugatus, the whole beak and immense casqu~ are coloured more conspicuously in the male than .m the femal ; and "the oblique grooves upon tho sides of 1. th 1 " 62 ''tho 10\rer mandible arc pecu mr to e mn e s<::x. The males are often ornamented with elongated feathen; or plumes springing from almost every part of the body. rl'he feathers on the throat and breast are so;netimes developed into beautiful ruff::; and collu.rs. The Mil-feathers are frequently increased in length ; as we see in the tail-coverts of the peacock, and in the tail of tho Argus pheasant. r.rhe body of this latter bird is not , laro·er than that of a fowl; yet the length from the end of the beak to the extremity of the tail is no less than fire feet three inches.63 The wing-feathers are not elongated nearly so often as the tail-feathers; for their r.1 Mr. 1\'[onlciro, 'Ibis,' yoJ. h•. 18G2, p. 33D. Ul 'Lund unu Water,' 18G8, p. 217. f3 Ju,nlinc'::; 'Nuturnli~t Lilnury: Dirus,' vol. xiv. p. 1GG. CHAP. XJII. DECORATION. 73. elongation would impede tho act of fijght. Yet the beautifully ocellatecl secondary wing-feathers of the malo. Argus pheasant are nearly three feet in length ; m:cl m a small African night-jar (Oosmetornis vexillanus) . one of the p~imary wing-feathers, during the breedlllg-season, attams a length of twenty-six inches whilst the bird itsel~· is only ten inches in length: In another closely-alhed genus of night-jars, the shafts of the elon?ated wing-feathers are naked, except at tho extremity, wh~re ~hero is a disc.64 Again, in u.nother genus of mghtJars, the tail-feathers are even still more prodigiously developed; so that ·we see the sa~o ki?cl of ornament gained by the males of closelyalhed buds, through the development of widely different feathers. It. is_ a curious fact that the feathers of birds belonging to distmct group~ have been modified in almost exactly tho same pecuhar manner. Thus the wina-feathers . f b lll one o the ab?ve-mentionocl night-jars are bare along the shaft and terminate in a disc; or ure as they are som~tim~s called, spoon or racket-sha~ed. Feathers of tlus kmd occur in the tail of a motmot (Eunwmota superciliaris), of a kino·-fisher finch humming- Lire:, p~rrot, sereral Indian ° drong~s (Dic'i·1tnts ~mel !l1dol2us, ~n one of '~hich. the elise stands vertically), <mel m tho tml of certam Du·cls of Paradise. In these latter birds, similar feathers, beautifully ocellated, ornament the head, as is likewise the case with some gall~naceous birds. In an Indian bustard ( Sypheotides aurd~ts) the feathers forming the ear-tufts which are about four inches in length, also terminat~ in discs.Gs . 01 'clater, in the 'Ibis,' vol. vi. 1861, p. 114. Livingdone, 'Expeditwn to the Zumbesi,' 1865, p. GG. 65 Jordon, 'Birds oflndia,' vol. iii. p. 620. |