SECONDARY sexual
characters are more diversified
and conspicuous
in birds, though not perhaps
entailing more important changes
of structure, than in any other
class of animals. I shall, therefore,
treat the subject at considerable
length. Male birds sometimes,
though rarely, possess special
weapons for fighting with each
other. They charm the female
by vocal or instrumental music
of the most varied kinds. They
are ornamented by all sorts of
combs, wattles, protuberances,
horns, air-distended sacks, top-knots,
naked shafts, plumes and lengthened
feathers gracefully springing
from all parts of the body. The
beak and naked skin about the
head, and the feathers, are often
gorgeously coloured. The males
sometimes pay their court by
dancing, or by fantastic antics
performed either on the ground
or in the air. In one instance,
at least, the male emits a musky
odour, which we may suppose serves
to charm or excite the female;
for that excellent observer,
Mr. Ramsay,* says of the Australian
musk-duck
(Biziura lobata) that "the smell which the male emits during the summer months
is confined to that sex, and in some individuals is retained throughout the year;
I have never, even in the breeding-season, shot a female which had any smell
of musk." So powerful is this odour during the pairing-season, that it can be
detected long before the bird can be seen.*(2) On the whole, birds appear to
be the most aesthetic of all animals, excepting of course man, and they have
nearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have. This is shown by our enjoyment
of the singing of birds, and by our women, both civilised and savage, decking
their heads with borrowed plumes, and using gems which are hardly more brilliantly
coloured than the naked skin and wattles of certain birds. In man, however, when
cultivated, the sense of beauty is manifestly a far more complex feeling, and
is associated with various intellectual ideas.
* Ibis., vol. iii. (new series),
1867, p. 414.
*(2) Gould, Handbook of the
Birds of Australia, 1865, vol.
ii., p. 383.
Before treating of the sexual
characters with which we are
here more particularly concerned,
I may just allude to certain
differences between the sexes
which apparently depend on differences
in their habits of life; for
such cases, though common in
the lower, are rare in the higher
classes. Two humming-birds belonging
to the genus Eustephanus, which
inhabit the island of Juan Fernandez,
were long thought to be specifically
distinct, but are now known,
as Mr. Gould informs me, to be
the male and female of the same
species, and they differ slightly
in the form of the beak. In another
genus of humming-birds (Grypus),
the beak of the male is serrated
along the margin and hooked at
the extremity, thus differing
much from that of the female.
In the Neomorpha of New Zealand,
there is, as we have seen, a
still wider difference in the
form of the beak in relation
to the manner of feeding of the
two sexes. Something of the same
kind has been observed with the
goldfinch (Carduelis elegans),
for I am assured by Mr. J. Jenner
Weir that the bird-catchers can
distinguish the males by their
slightly longer beaks. The flocks
of males are often found feeding
on the seeds of the teazle (Dipsacus),
which they can reach with their
elongated beaks, whilst the females
more commonly feed on the seeds
of the betony or Scrophularia.
With a slight difference of this
kind as a foundation, we can
see how the beaks of the two
sexes might be made to differ
greatly through natural selection.
In some of the above cases, however,
it is possible that the beaks
of the males may have been first
modified in relation to their
contests with other males; and
that this afterwards led to slightly
changed habits of life.
Law of Battle.-
Almost all male birds are extremely
pugnacious,
using their beaks, wings, and
legs for fighting together. We
see this every spring with our
robins and sparrows. The smallest
of all birds, namely the humming-bird,
is one of the most quarrelsome.
Mr. Gosse* describes a battle
in which a pair seized hold of
each other's beaks, and whirled
round and round, till they almost
fell to the ground; and M. Montes
de Oca, in speaking or another
genus of humming-bird, says that
two males rarely meet without
a fierce aerial encounter: when
kept in cages "their fighting
has mostly ended in the splitting
of the tongue of one of the two,
which then surely dies from being
unable to feed."*(2) With waders,
the males of the common water-hen
(Gallinula chloropus) "when pairing,
fight violently for the females:
they stand nearly upright in
the water and strike with their
feet." Two were seen to be thus
engaged for half an hour, until
one got hold of the head of the
other, which would have been
killed had not the observer interfered;
the female all the time looking
on as a quiet spectator.*(3)
Mr. Blyth informs me that the
males of an allied bird (Gallicrex
cristatus) are a third larger
than the females, and are so
pugnacious during the breeding-
season that they are kept by
the natives of eastern Bengal
for the sake of fighting. Various
other birds are kept in India
for the same purpose, for instance,
the bulbuls (Pycnonotus hoemorrhous)
which "fight with great spirit."*(4)
* Quoted by Mr. Gould, Introduction
to the Trochilidae, 1861, page
29.
*(2) Gould, ibid., p. 52.
*(3) W. Thompson, Natural History
of Ireland: Birds, vol. ii.,
1850, p. 327.
*(4) Jerdon, Birds of India,
1863, vol. ii., p. 96.
The polygamous
ruff (see Machetes pugnax,
fig. 37) is notorious
for his extreme pugnacity; and
in the spring, the males, which
are considerably larger than
the females, congregate day after
day at a particular spot, where
the females propose to lay their
eggs. The fowlers discover these
spots by the turf being trampled
somewhat bare. Here they fight
very much like game-cocks, seizing
each other with their beaks and
striking with their wings. The
great ruff of feathers round
the neck is then erected, and
according to Col. Montagu "sweeps
the ground as a shield to defend
the more tender parts"; and this
is the only instance known to
me in the case of birds of any
structure serving as a shield.
The ruff of feathers, however,
from its varied and rich colours
probably serves in chief part
as an ornament. Like most pugnacious
birds, they seem always ready
to fight, and when closely confined,
often kill each other; but Montagu
observed that their pugnacity
becomes greater during the spring,
when the long feathers on their
necks are fully developed; and
at this period the least movement
by any one bird provokes a general
battle.* Of the pugnacity of
web-footed birds, two instances
will suffice: in Guiana "bloody
fights occur during the breeding-season
between the males of the wild
musk-duck (Cairina moschata);
and where these fights have occurred
the river is covered for some
distance with feathers."*(2)
Birds which seem ill-adapted
for fighting engage in fierce
conflicts; thus the stronger
males of the pelican drive away
the weaker ones, snapping with
their huge beaks and giving heavy
blows with their wings. Male
snipe fight together, "tugging
and pushing each other with their
bills in the most curious manner
imaginable." Some few birds are
believed never to fight; this
is the case, according to Audubon,
with one of the woodpeckers of
the United States (Picu sauratus),
although "the hens are followed
by even half a dozen of their
gay suitors."*(3)
* Macgillivray, History of British
Birds, vol. iv., 1852, pp. 177-181.
*(2) Sir R. Schomburgk, in Journal
of Royal Geographic Society,
vol. xiii., 1843, p. 31.
*(3) Ornithological Biography,
vol. i., p. 191. For pelicans
and snipes, see vol. iii., pp.
138, 477.
The males of many birds are
larger than the females, and
this no doubt is the result of
the advantage gained by the larger
and stronger males over their
rivals during many generations.
The difference in size between
the two sexes is carried to an
extreme point in several Australian
species; thus the male musk-duck
(Biziura), and the male Cincloramphus
cruralis (allied to our pipits)
are by measurement actually twice
as large as their respective
females.* With many other birds
the females are larger than the
males; and, as formerly remarked,
the explanation often given,
namely, that the females have
most of the work in feeding their
young, will not suffice. In some
few cases, as we shall hereafter
see, the females apparently have
acquired their greater size and
strength for the sake of conquering
other females and obtaining possession
of the males.
* Gould, Handbook of Birds of
Australia, vol. i., p. 395; vol.
ii., p. 383.
The males of
many gallinaceous birds, especially
of the polygamous
kinds, are furnished with special
weapons for fighting with their
rivals, namely spurs, which can
be used with fearful effect.
It has been recorded by a trustworthy
writer* that in Derbyshire a
kite struck at a game-hen accompanied
by her chickens, when the cock
rushed to the rescue, and drove
his spur right through the eye
and skull of the aggressor. The
spur was with difficulty drawn
from the skull, and as the kite,
though dead, retained his grasp,
the two birds were firmly locked
together; but the cock when disentangled
was very little injured. The
invincible courage of the game-cock
is notorious: a gentleman who
long ago witnessed the brutal
scene, told me that a bird had
both its legs broken by some
accident in the cockpit, and
the owner laid a wager that if
the legs could be spliced so
that the bird could stand upright,
he would continue fighting. This
was effected on the spot, and
the bird fought with undaunted
courage until he received his
death-stroke. In Ceylon a closely
allied, wild species, the Gallus
stanleyi, is known to fight desperately "in
defence of his seraglio," so
that one of the combatants is
frequently found dead.*(2) An
Indian partridge (Ortygornis
gularis), the male of which is
furnished with strong and sharp
spurs, is so quarrelsome "that
the scars of former fights disfigure
the breast of almost every bird
you kill."*(3)
* Mr. Hewitt, in the Poultry
Book, by Tegetmeier, 1866, p.
137.
*(2) Layard, Annals and Magazine
of Natural History, vol. xiv.,
1854, p. 63.
*(3) Jerdon, Birds of India,
vol. iii., p. 574.
The males of
almost all gallinaceous birds,
even those which are not
furnished with spurs, engage
during the breeding- season in
fierce conflicts. The capercailzie
and black-cock (Tetrao urogallus
and T. tetrix), which are both
polygamists, have regular appointed
places, where during many weeks
they congregate in numbers to
fight together and to display
their charms before the females.
Dr. W. Kovalevsky informs me
that in Russia he has seen the
snow all bloody on the arenas
where the capercailzie have fought;
and the black-cocks "make the
feathers fly in every direction," when
several "engage in a battle royal." The
elder Brehm gives a curious account
of the balz, as the love-dances
and love songs of the black-cock
are called in Germany. The bird
utters almost continuously the
strangest noises: "he holds his
tail up and spreads it out like
a fan, he lifts up his head and
neck with all the feathers erect,
and stretches his wings from
the body. Then he takes a few
jumps in different directions
sometimes in a circle, and presses
the under part of his beak so
hard against the ground that
the chin feathers are rubbed
off. During these movements he
beats his wings and turns round
and round. The more ardent he
grows the more lively he becomes,
until at last the bird appears
like a frantic creature." At
such times the black-cocks are
so absorbed that they become
almost blind and deaf, but less
so than the capercailzie: hence
bird after bird may be shot on
the same spot, or even caught
by the hand. After performing
these antics the males begin
to fight: and the same black-cock,
in order to prove his strength
over several antagonists, will
visit in the course of one morning
several balz places, which remain
the same during successive years.*
* Brehm, Illust.
Thierleben, 1867, B. iv., s.
351. Some of
the foregoing statements are
taken from L. Lloyd, Game Birds
of Sweden, &c., 1867, p. 79.
The peacock with his long train
appears more like a dandy than
a warrior, but he sometimes engages
in fierce contests: the Rev.
W. Darwin Fox informs me that
at some little distance from
Chester two peacocks became so
excited whilst fighting, that
they flew over the whole city,
still engaged, until they alighted
on the top of St. John's tower.
The spur, in those gallinaceous
birds which are thus provided,
is generally single; but Polyplectron
(see fig. 51) has two or more
on each leg; and one of the blood-pheasants
(Ithaginis cruentus) has been
seen with five spurs. The spurs
are generally confined to the
male, being represented by mere
knobs or rudiments in the female;
but the females of the Java peacock
(Pavo muticus) and, as I am informed
by Mr. Blyth, of the small fire-backed
pheasant (Euplocamus erythropthalmus)
possess spurs. In Galloperdix
it is usual for the males to
have two spurs, and for the females
to have only one on each leg.*
Hence spurs may be considered
as a masculine structure, which
has been occasionally more or
less transferred to the females.
Like most other secondary sexual
characters, the spurs are highly
variable, both in number and
development, in the same species.
* Jerdon, Birds of India: on
Ithaginis, vol. iii., p. 523;
on Galloperdix, p. 541.
Various birds
have spurs on their wings.
But the Egyptian
goose (Chenalopex aegyptiacus)
has only "bare obtuse knobs," and
these probably shew us the first
steps by which true spurs have
been developed in other species.
In the spur-winged goose, Plectropterus
gambensis, the males have much
larger spurs than the females;
and they use them, as I am informed
by Mr. Bartlett, in fighting
together, so that, in this case,
the wing-spurs serve as sexual
weapons; but according to Livingstone,
they are chiefly used in the
defence of the young. The Palamedea
(see fig. 38) is armed with a
pair of spurs on each wing; and
these are such formidable weapons
that a single blow has been known
to drive a dog howling away.
But it does not appear that the
spurs in this case, or in that
of some of the spur-winged rails,
are larger in the male than in
the female.* In certain plovers,
however, the wing-spurs must
be considered as a sexual character.
Thus in the male of our common
peewit (Vanellus cristatus) the
tubercle on the shoulder of the
wing becomes more prominent during
the breeding-season, and the
males fight together. In some
species of Lobivanellus a similar
tubercle becomes developed during
the breeding-season "into a short
horny spur." In the Australian
L. lobatus both sexes have spurs,
but these are much larger in
the males than in the females.
In an allied bird, the Hoplopterus
armatus, the spurs do not increase
in size during the breeding-season;
but these birds have been seen
in Egypt to fight together, in
the same manner as our peewits,
by turning suddenly in the air
and striking sideways at each
other, sometimes with fatal results.
Thus also they drive away other
enemies.*(2)
* For the Egyptian goose, see
Macgillivray, British Birds,
vol. iv., p. 639. For Plectropterus,
Livingstone's Travels, p. 254.
For Palamedea, Brehm's Illustriertes
Thierleben, B. iv., s. 740. See
also on this bird Azara, Voyages
dans l'Amerique merid., tom.
iv., 1809, pp. 179, 253.
*(2) See, on our peewit, Mr.
R. Carr in Land and Water, Aug.
8, 1868, p. 46. In regard to
Lobivanellus, see Jerdon's Birds
of India, vol. iii., p. 647,
and Gould's Handbook of Birds
of Australia, vol. ii., p. 220.
For the Hoplopterus, see Mr.
Allen in the Ibis., vol. v.,
1863, p. 156.
The season of
love is that of battle; but
the males of some
birds, as of the game-fowl and
ruff, and even the young males
of the wild turkey and grouse,*
are ready to fight whenever they
meet. The presence of the female
is the teterrima belli causa.
The Bengali baboos make the pretty
little males of the amadavat
(Estrelda amandava) fight together
by placing three small cages
in a row, with a female in the
middle; after a little time the
two males are turned loose, and
immediately a desperate battle
ensues.*(2) When many males congregate
at the same appointed spot and
fight together, as in the case
of grouse and various other birds,
they are generally attended by
the females,*(3) which afterwards
pair with the victorious combatants.
But in some cases the pairing
precedes instead of succeeding
the combat: thus according to
Audubon,*(4) several males of
the Virginian goat-sucker (Caprimulgus
virgianus) "court, in a highly
entertaining manner the female,
and no sooner has she made her
choice, than her approved gives
chase to all intruders and drives
them beyond his dominions." Generally
the males try to drive away or
kill their rivals before they
pair. It does not, however, appear
that the females invariably prefer
the victorious males. I have
indeed been assured by Dr. W.
Kovalevsky that the female capercailzie
sometimes steals away with a
young male who has not dared
to enter the arena with the older
cocks, in the same manner as
occasionally happens with the
does of the red-deer in Scotland.
When two males contend in presence
of a single female, the victor,
no doubt, commonly gains his
desire; but some of these battles
are caused by wandering males
trying to distract the peace
of an already mated pair.*(5)
* Audubon, Ornithological Biography,
vol. ii., p. 492; vol. i., pp.
4-13.
*(2) Mr. Blyth, Land and Water,
1867, p. 212.
*(3) Richardson on Tetrao umbellus,
Fauna Bor. Amer.: Birds, 1831,
p. 343. L. Lloyd, Game Birds
of Sweden, 1867, pp. 22, 79,
on the capercailzie and black-cock.
Brehm, however, asserts (Thierleben,
B. iv., s. 352) that in Germany
the grey-hens do not generally
attend the Balzen of the black-cocks,
but this is an exception to the
common rule; possibly the hens
may lie hidden in the surrounding
bushes, as is known to be the
case with the grey-hens in Scandinavia,
and with other species in N.
America.
*(4) Ornithological Biography,
vol. ii., p. 275.
*(5) Brehm,
Thierleben, &c.,
B. iv., 1867, p. 990. Audubon,
Ornithological Biography, vol.
ii., p. 492.
Even with the
most pugnacious species it
is probable that the
pairing does not depend exclusively
on the mere strength and courage
of the male; for such males are
generally decorated with various
ornaments, which often become
more brilliant during the breeding-season,
and which are sedulously displayed
before the females. The males
also endeavour to charm or excite
their mates by love-notes, songs,
and antics; and the courtship
is, in many instances, a prolonged
affair. Hence it is not probable
that the females are indifferent
to the charms of the opposite
sex, or that they are invariably
compelled to yield to the victorious
males. It is more probable that
the females are excited, either
before or after the conflict,
by certain males, and thus unconsciously
prefer them. In the case of Tetrao
umbellus, a good observer* goes
so far as to believe that the
battles of the male "are all
a sham, performed to show themselves
to the greatest advantage before
the admiring females who assemble
around; for I have never been
able to find a maimed hero, and
seldom more than a broken feather." I
shall have to recur to this subject,
but I may here add that with
the Tetrao cupido of the United
States, about a score of males
assemble at a particular spot,
and, strutting about, make the
whole air resound with their
extraordinary noises. At the
first answer from a female the
males begin to fight furiously,
and the weaker give way; but
then, according to Audubon, both
the victors and vanquished search
for the female, so that the females
must either then exert a choice,
or the battle must be renewed.
So, again, with one of the field-starlings
of the United States (Sturnella
ludoviciana) the males engage
in fierce conflicts, "but at
the sight of a female they all
fly after her as if mad."*(2)
* Land and Water, July 25, 1868,
p. 14.
*(2) Audubon's Ornithological
Biography; on Tetrao cupido,
vol. ii., p. 492; on the Sturnus,
vol. ii., p. 219.
Vocal and instrumental
music.- With birds the voice
serves to
express various emotions, such
as distress, fear, anger, triumph,
or mere happiness. It is apparently
sometimes used to excite terror,
as in the case of the hissing
noise made by some nestling-birds.
Audubon*, relates that a night-heron
(Ardea nycticorax, Linn.), which
he kept tame, used to hide itself
when a cat approached, and then "suddenly
start up uttering one of the
most frightful cries, apparently
enjoying the cat's alarm and
flight." The common domestic
cock clucks to the hen, and the
hen to her chickens, when a dainty
morsel is found. The hen, when
she has laid an egg, "repeats
the same note very often, and
concludes with the sixth above,
which she holds for a longer
time";*(2) and thus she expresses
her joy. Some social birds apparently
call to each other for aid; and
as they flit from tree to tree,
the flock is kept together by
chirp answering chirp. During
the nocturnal migrations of geese
and other water-fowl, sonorous
clangs from the van may be heard
in the darkness overhead, answered
by clangs in the rear. Certain
cries serve as danger signals,
which, as the sportsman knows
to his cost, are understood by
the same species and by others.
The domestic cock crows, and
the humming-bird chirps, in triumph
over a defeated rival. The true
song, however, of most birds
and various strange cries are
chiefly uttered during the breeding-season,
and serve as a charm, or merely
as a call-note, to the other
sex.
* Ornithological Biography,
vol. v., p. 601.
*(2) The Hon. Daines Barrington,
Philosophical Transactions, 1773,
p. 252.
Naturalists
are much divided with respect
to the object of
the singing of birds. Few more
careful observers ever lived
than Montagu, and he maintained
that the "males of songbirds
and of many others do not in
general search for the female,
but, on the contrary, their business
in the spring is to perch on
some conspicuous spot, breathing
out their full and armorous notes,
which, by instinct, the female
knows, and repairs to the spot
to choose her mate."* Mr. Jenner
Weir informs me that this is
certainly the case with the nightingale.
Bechstein, who kept birds during
his whole life, asserts, "that
the female canary always chooses
the best singer, and that in
a state of nature the female
finch selects that male out of
a hundred whose notes please
her most."*(2) There can be no
doubt that birds closely attend
to each other's song. Mr. Weir
has told me of the case of a
bullfinch which had been taught
to pipe a German waltz, and who
was so good a performer that
he cost ten guineas; when this
bird was first introduced into
a room where other birds were
kept and he began to sing, all
the others, consisting of about
twenty linnets and canaries,
ranged themselves on the nearest
side of their cages, and listened
with the greatest interest to
the new performer. Many naturalists
believe that the singing of birds
is almost exclusively "the effect
of rivalry and emulation," and
not for the sake of charming
their mates. This was the opinion
of Daines Barrington and White
of Selborne, who both especially
attended to this subject.*(3)
Barrington, however, admits that "superiority
in song gives to birds an amazing
ascendancy over others, as is
well known to bird-catchers."
* Ornithological Dictionary,
1833, p. 475.
*(2) Naturgeschichte
der Stubenvogel, 1840, s. 4.
Mr. Harrison Weir
likewise writes to me; "I am
informed that the best singing
males generally get a mate first,
when they are bred in the same
room,"
*(3) Philosophical Transactions,
1773, p. 263. White's Natural
History of Selborne, 1825, vol.
i., p. 246.
It is certain that there is
an intense degree of rivalry
between the males in their singing.
Bird-fanciers match their birds
to see which will sing longest;
and I was told by Mr. Yarrell
that a first-rate bird will sometimes
sing till he drops down almost
dead, or according to Bechstein,*
quite dead from rupturing a vessel
in the lungs. Whatever the cause
may be, male birds, as I hear
from Mr. Weir, often die suddenly
during the season of song. That
the habit of singing is sometimes
quite independent of love is
clear, for a sterile, hybrid
canary-bird has been described*(2)
as singing whilst viewing itself
in a mirror, and then dashing
at its own image; it likewise
attacked with fury a female canary,
when put into the same cage.
The jealousy excited by the act
of singing is constantly taken
advantage of by bird-catchers;
a male in good song, is hidden
and protected, whilst a stuffed
bird, surrounded by limed twigs,
is exposed to view. In this manner,
as Mr. Weir informs me, a man
has in the course of a single
day caught fifty, and in one
instance, seventy, male chaffinches.
The power and inclination to
sing differ so greatly with birds
that although the price of an
ordinary male chaffinch is only
sixpence, Mr. Weir saw one bird
for which the bird-catcher asked
three pounds; the test of a really
good singer being that it will
continue to sing whilst the cage
is swung round the owner's head.
* Naturgesch. der Stubenvogel,
1840, s. 252.
*(2) Mr. Bold, Zoologist, 1843-44,
p. 659.
That male birds should sing
from emulation as well as for
charming the female, is not at
all incompatible; and it might
have been expected that these
two habits would have concurred,
like those of display and pugnacity.
Some authors, however, argue
that the song of the male cannot
serve to charm the female, because
the females of some few species,
such as of the canary, robin,
lark, and bullfinch, especially
when in a state of widowhood,
as Bechstein remarks, pour forth
fairly melodious strains. In
some of these cases the habit
of singing may be in part attributed
to the females having been highly
fed and confined,* for this disturbs
all the functions connected with
the reproduction of the species.
Many instances have already been
given of the partial transference
of secondary masculine characters
to the female, so that it is
not at all surprising that the
females of some species should
possess the power of song. It
has also been argued, that the
song of the male cannot serve
as a charm, because the males
of certain species, for instance
of the robin, sing during the
autumn.*(2) But nothing is more
common than for animals to take
pleasure in practising whatever
instinct they follow at other
times for some real good. How
often do we see birds which fly
easily, gliding and sailing through
the air obviously for pleasure?
The cat plays with the captured
mouse, and the cormorant with
the captured fish. The weaver-bird
(Ploceus), when confined in a
cage, amuses itself by neatly
weaving blades of grass between
the wires of its cage. Birds
which habitually fight during
the breeding-season are generally
ready to fight at all times;
and the males of the capercailzie
sometimes hold their Balzen or
leks at the usual place of assemblage
during the autumn.*(3) Hence
it is not at all surprising that
male birds should continue singing
for their own amusement after
the season for courtship is over.
* D. Barrington, Philosophical
Transactions, 1773, p. 262. Bechstein,
Stubenvogel, 1840, s. 4.
*(2) This is likewise the case
with the water-ouzel; see Mr.
Hepburn in the Zoologist, 1845-46,
p. 1068.
*(3) L. Lloyd, Game Birds of
Sweden, 1867, p. 25.
As shewn in a previous chapter,
singing is to a certain extent
an art, and is much improved
by practice. Birds can be taught
various tunes, and even the unmelodious
sparrow has learnt to sing like
a linnet. They acquire the song
of their foster parents,* and
sometimes that of their neighbours.*(2)
All the common songsters belong
to the Order of Insessores, and
their vocal organs are much more
complex than those of most other
birds; yet it is a singular fact
that some of the Insessores,
such as ravens, crows, and magpies,
possess the proper apparatus,*(3)
though they never sing, and do
not naturally modulate their
voices to any great extent. Hunter
asserts*(4) that with the true
songsters the muscles of the
larynx are stronger in the males
than in the females; but with
this slight exception there is
no difference in the vocal organs
of the two sexes, although the
males of most species sing so
much better and more continuously
than the females.
* Barrington, ibid., p. 264,
Bechstein, ibid., s. 5.
*(2) Dureau de la Malle gives
a curious instance (Annales des
Sc. Nat., 3rd series, Zoolog.,
tom. x., p. 118) of some wild
blackbirds in his garden in Paris,
which naturally learnt a republican
air from a caged bird.
*(3) Bishop, in Todd's Cyclopaedia
of Anatomy and Physiology, vol.
iv., p. 1496.
*(4) As stated by Barrington
in Philosophical Transactions,
1773, p. 262.
It is remarkable
that only small birds properly
sing. The Australian
genus Menura, however, must be
excepted; for the Menura alberti,
which is about the size of a
half-grown turkey, not only mocks
other birds, but "its own whistle
is exceedingly beautiful and
varied." The males congregate
and form "corroborying places," where
they sing, raising and spreading
their tails like peacocks, and
drooping their wings.* It is
also remarkable that birds which
sing well are rarely decorated
with brilliant colours or other
ornaments. Of our British birds,
excepting the bullfinch and goldfinch,
the best songsters are plain-coloured.
The kingfisher, bee-eater, roller,
hoopoe, wood-peckers, &c., utter
harsh cries; and the brilliant
birds of the tropics are hardly
ever songsters.*(2) Hence bright
colours and the power of song
seem to replace each other. We
can perceive that if the plumage
did not vary in brightness, or
if bright colours were dangerous
to the species, other means would
be employed to charm the females;
and melody of voice offers one
such means.
* Gould, Handbook of the Birds
of Australia, vol. i., 1865,
pp. 308-310. See also Mr. T.
W. Wood in the Student, April,
1870, p. 125.
*(2) See remarks to this effect
in Gould's Introduction to the
Trochilidae,, 1861, p. 22.
In some birds
the vocal organs differ greatly
in the two sexes.
In the Tetrao cupido (see fig.
39) the male has two bare, orange-coloured
sacks, one on each side of the
neck; and these are largely inflated
when the male, during the breeding-season,
makes his curious hollow sound,
audible at a great distance.
Audubon proved that the sound
was intimately connected with
this apparatus (which reminds
us of the air-sacks on each side
of the mouth of certain male
frogs), for he found that the
sound was much diminished when
one of the sacks of a tame bird
was pricked, and when both were
pricked it was altogether stopped.
The female has "a somewhat similar,
though smaller naked space of
skin on the neck; but this is
not capable of inflation."* The
male of another kind of grouse
(Tetrao urophasianus), whilst
courting the female, has his "bare
yellow oesophagus inflated to
a prodigious size, fully half
as large as the body"; and he
then utters various grating,
deep, hollow tones. With his
neck-feathers erect, his wings
lowered, and buzzing on the ground,
and his long pointed tail spread
out like a fan, he displays a
variety of grotesque attitudes.
The oesophagus of the female
is not in any way remarkable.*(2)
* The Sportsman and Naturalist
in Canada, by Major W. Ross King,
1866, pp. 144-146. Mr. T. W.
Wood gives in the Student (April,
1870, p. 116) an excellent account
of the attitude and habits of
this bird during its courtship.
He states that the ear-tufts
or neck-plumes are erected, so
that they meet over the crown
of the head. See his drawing,
fig. 39.
*(2) Richardson, Fauna Bor.
Americana: Birds, 1831, p. 359.
Audubon, ibid., vol. iv., p.
507.
It seems now
well made out that the great
throat pouch of the
European male bustard (Otis tarda),
and of at least four other species,
does not, as was formerly supposed,
serve to hold water, but is connected
with the utterance during the
breeding-season of a peculiar
sound resembling "oak."* A crow-like
bird inhabiting South America
(see Cephalopterus ornatus, fig.
40) is called the umbrella-bird,
from its immense top knot, formed
of bare white quills surmounted
by dark-blue plumes, which it
can elevate into a great dome
no less than five inches in diameter,
covering the whole head. This
bird has on its neck a long,
thin, cylindrical fleshy appendage,
which is thickly clothed with
scale-like blue feathers. It
probably serves in part as an
ornament, but likewise as a resounding
apparatus; for Mr. Bates found
that it is connected "with an
unusual development of the trachea
and vocal organs." It is dilated
when the bird utters its singularly
deep, loud and long sustained
fluty note. The head-crest and
neck-appendage are rudimentary
in the female.*(2)
* The following papers have
been lately written on this subject:
Prof. A. Newton, in the Ibis,
1862, p. 107; Dr. Cullen, ibid.,
1865, p. 145; Mr. Flower, in
Proc. Zool. Soc., 1865, p. 747;
and Dr. Murie, in Proc. Zool.
Soc., 1868, p. 471. In this latter
paper an excellent figure is
given of the male Australian
bustard in full display with
the sack distended. It is a singular
fact that the sack is not developed
in all the males of the same
species.
*(2) Bates, The Naturalist on
the Amazons, 1863, vol. ii.,
p. 284; Wallace, in Proceedings,
Zoological Society, 1850, p.
206. A new species, with a still
larger neck-appendage (C. penduliger),
has lately been discovered, see
Ibis, vol. i., p. 457.
The vocal organs
of various web-footed and wading
birds are
extraordinarily complex, and
differ to a certain extent in
the two sexes. In some cases
the trachea is convoluted, like
a French horn, and is deeply
embedded in the sternum. In the
wild swan (Cygnus ferus) it is
more deeply embedded in the adult
male than in the adult female
or young male. In the male Merganser
the enlarged portion of the trachea
is furnished with an additional
pair of muscles.* In one of the
ducks, however, namely Anas punctata,
the bony enlargement is only
a little more developed in the
male than in the female.*(2)
But the meaning of these differences
in the trachea of the two sexes
of the Anatidae is not understood;
for the male is not always the
more vociferous; thus with the
common duck, the male hisses,
whilst the female utters a loud
quack.*(3) In both sexes of one
of the cranes (Grus virgo) the
trachea penetrates the sternum,
but presents "certain sexual
modifications." In the male of
the black stork there is also
a well-marked sexual difference
in the length and curvature of
the bronchi.*(4) Highly important
structures have, therefore, in
these cases been modified according
to sex.
* Bishop, in Todd's Cyclopaedia
of Anatomy and Physiology, vol.
iv., p. 1499.
*(2) Prof. Newton, Proc. Zoolog.
Soc., 1871, p. 651.
*(3) The spoonbill (Platalea)
has its trachea convoluted into
a figure of eight, and yet this
bird (Jerdon, Birds of India,
vol. iii., p. 763) is mute but
Mr. Blyth informs me that the
convolutions are not constantly
present, so that perhaps they
are now tending towards abortion.
*(4) Elements of Comparative
Anatomy, by R. Wagner, Eng. translat.,
1845, p. 111. With respect to
the swan as given above, Yarrell's
History of British Birds, 2nd
edition, 1845, vol. iii., p.
193.
It is often
difficult to conjecture whether
the many strange cries
and notes uttered by male birds
during the breeding-season serve
as a charm or merely as a call
to the female. The soft cooing
of the turtle-dove and of many
pigeons, it may be presumed,
pleases the female. When the
female of the wild turkey utters
her call in the morning, the
male answers by a note which
differs from the gobling noise
made, when with erected feathers,
rustling wings and distended
wattles, he puffs and struts
before her.* The spel of the
black-cock certainly serves as
a call to the female, for it
has been known to bring four
or five females from a distance
to a male under confinement;
but as the black-cock continues
his spel for hours during successive
days, and in the case of the
capercailzie "with an agony of
passion," we are led to suppose
that the females which are present
are thus charmed.*(2) The voice
of the common rook is known to
alter during the breeding-season,
and is therefore in some way
sexual.*(3) But what shall we
say about the harsh screams of,
for instance, some kinds of macaws;
have these birds as bad taste
for musical sounds as they apparently
have for colour, judging by the
inharmonious contrast of their
bright yellow and blue plumage?
It is indeed possible that without
any advantage being thus gained,
the loud voices of many male
birds may be the result of the
inherited effects of the continued
use of their vocal organs when
excited by the strong passions
of love, jealousy and rage; but
to this point we shall recur
when we treat of quadrupeds.
* C. L. Bonaparte, quoted in
the Naturalist Library: Birds,
vol. xiv., p. 126.
*(2) L. Lloyd,
The Game Birds of Sweden, &c.,
1867, pp. 22, 81.
*(3) Jenner, Philosophical Transactions,
1824, p. 20.
We have as yet
spoken only of the voice, but
the males of various
birds practise, during their
courtship, what may be called
instrumental music. Peacocks
and birds of paradise rattle
their quills together. Turkey-cocks
scrape their wings against the
ground, and some kinds of grouse
thus produce a buzzing sound.
Another North American grouse,
the Tetrao umbellus, when with
his tail erect, his ruffs displayed, "he
shows off his finery to the females,
who lie hid in the neighbourhood," drums
by rapidly striking his wings
together above his back, according
to Mr. R. Haymond, and not, as
Audubon thought, by striking
them against his sides. The sound
thus produced is compared by
some to distant thunder, and
by others to the quick roll of
a drum. The female never drums, "but
flies directly to the place where
the male is thus engaged." The
male of the Kalij-pheasant, in
the Himalayas, often makes a
singular drumming noise with
his wings, not unlike the sound
produced by shaking a stiff piece
of cloth." On the west coast
of Africa the little black-weavers
(Ploceus?) congregate in a small
party on the bushes round a small
open space, and sing and glide
through the air with quivering
wings, "which make a rapid whirring
sound like a child's rattle." One
bird after another thus performs
for hours together, but only
during the courting-season. At
this season, and at no other
time, the males of certain night-jars
(Caprimulgus) make a strange
booming noise with their wings.
The various species of woodpeckers
strike a sonorous branch with
their beaks, with so rapid a
vibratory movement that "the
head appears to be in two places
at once." The sound thus produced
is audible at a considerable
distance but cannot be described;
and I feel sure that its source
would never be conjectured by
any one hearing it for the first
time. As this jarring sound is
made chiefly during the breeding-season,
it has been considered as a love-song;
but it is perhaps more strictly
a love-call. The female, when
driven from her nest, has been
observed thus to call her mate,
who answered in the same manner
and soon appeared. Lastly, the
male hoopoe (Upupa epops) combines
vocal and instrumental music;
for during the breeding-season
this bird, as Mr. Swinhoe observed,
first draws in air, and then
taps the end of its beak perpendicularly
down against a stone or the trunk
of a tree, "when the breath being
forced down the tubular bill
produces the correct sound." If
the beak is not thus struck against
some object, the sound is quite
different. Air is at the same
time swallowed, and the oesophagus
thus becomes much swollen; and
this probably acts as a resonator,
not only with the hoopoe, but
with pigeons and other birds.*
* For the foregoing facts see,
on birds of paradise, Brehm,
Thierleben, B. iii., s. 325.
On grouse, Richardson, Fauna
Bor. Americ.: Birds, pp. 343
and 359; Major W. Ross King,
The Sportsman in Canada, 1866,
p. 156; Mr. Haymond, in Prof.
Cox's Geol. Survey of Indiana,
p. 227; Audubon, American Ornitholog.
Biograph., vol. i., p. 216. On
the Kalij-pheasant, Jerdon, Birds
of India, vol. iii., p. 533.
On the weavers, Livingstone's
Expedition to the Zambesi, 1865,
p. 425. On woodpeckers, Macgillivray,
Hist. of British Birds, vol.
iii., 1840, pp. 84, 88, 89, and
95. On the hoopoe, Mr. Swinhoe,
in Proc. Zoolog. Soc., June 23,
1863 and 1871, p. 348. On the
night-jar, Audubon, ibid., vol.
ii., p. 255, and American Naturalist,
1873, p. 672. The English night-jar
likewise makes in the spring
a curious noise during its rapid
flight.
In the foregoing
cases sounds are made by the
aid of structures
already present and otherwise
necessary; but in the following
cases certain feathers have been
specially modified for the express
purpose of producing sounds.
The drumming, bleating, neighing,
or thundering noise (as expressed
by different observers) made
by the common snipe (Scolopax
gallinago) must have surprised
every one who has ever heard
it. This bird, during the pairing-season,
flies to "perhaps a thousand
feet in height," and after zig-zagging
about for a time descends to
the earth in a curved line, with
outspread tail and quivering
pinions, and surprising velocity.
The sound is emitted only during
this rapid descent. No one was
able to explain the cause until
M. Meves observed that on each
side of the tail the outer feathers
are peculiarly formed (see fig.
41), having a stiff sabre-shaped
shaft with the oblique barbs
of unusual length, the outer
webs being strongly bound together.
He found that by blowing on these
feathers, or by fastening them
to a long thin stick and waving
them rapidly through the air,
he could reproduce the drumming
noise made by the living bird.
Both sexes are furnished with
these feathers, but they are
generally larger in the male
than in the female, and emit
a deeper note. In some species,
as in S. frenata (see fig. 42),
four feathers, and in S. javensis
(see fig. 43), no less than eight
on each side of the tail are
greatly modified. Different tones
are emitted by the feathers of
the different species when waved
through the air; and the Scolopax
wilsonii of the United States
makes a switching noise whilst
descending rapidly to the earth.*
* See M. Meves' interesting
paper in Proc. Zool. Soc., 1858,
p. 199. For the habits of the
snipe, Macgillivray, History
of British Birds, vol. iv., p.
371. For the American snipe,
Capt. Blakiston, Ibis, vol. v.,
1863, p. 131.
In the male
of the Chamaepetes unicolor
(a large gallinaceous
bird of America), the first primary
wing-feather is arched towards
the tip and is much more attenuated
than in the female. In an allied
bird, the Penelope nigra, Mr.
Salvin observed a male, which,
whilst it flew downwards "with
outstretched wings, gave forth
a kind of crashing rushing noise," like
the falling of a tree.* The male
alone of one of the Indian bustards
(Sypheotides auritus) has its
primary wing-feathers greatly
acuminated; and the male of an
allied species is known to make
a humming noise whilst courting
the female.*(2) In a widely different
group of birds, namely humming-birds,
the males alone of certain kinds
have either the shafts of their
primary wing-feathers broadly
dilated, or the webs abruptly
excised towards the extremity.
The male, for instance, of Selasphorus
platycercus, when adult, has
the first primary wing-feather
(see fig. 44), thus excised.
Whilst flying from flower to
flower he makes "a shrill, almost
whistling noise";*(3) but it
did not appear to Mr. Salvin
that the noise was intentionally
made.
* Mr. Salvin, in Proceedings,
Zoological Society, 1867, p.
160. I am much indebted to this
distinguished ornithologist for
sketches of the feathers of the
Chamaepetes, and for other information.
*(2) Jerdon, Birds of India,
vol. iii., pp. 618, 621.
*(3) Gould, Introduction to
the Trochilidae, 1861, p. 49.
Salvin, Proceedings, Zoological
Society, 1867, p. 160.
Lastly, in several
species of a sub-genus of Pipra
or manakin,
or manakin, the males, as described
by Mr. Sclater, have their secondary
wing-feathers modified in a still
more remarkable manner. In the
brilliantly-coloured P. deliciosa
the first three secondaries are
thick-stemmed and curved towards
the body; in the fourth and fifth
(see fig. 45, a) the change is
greater; and in the sixth and
seventh (b, c) the shaft "is
thickened to an extraordinary
degree, forming a solid horny
lump." The barbs also are greatly
changed in shape, in comparison
with the corresponding feathers
(d, e, f) in the female. Even
the bones of the wing, which
support these singular feathers
in the male, are said by Mr.
Fraser to be much thickened.
These little birds make an extraordinary
noise, the first "sharp note
being not unlike the crack of
a whip."*
* Sclater, in Proceedings, Zoological
Society, 1860, p. 90, and in
Ibis, vol. iv., 1862, p. 175.
Also Salvin, in Ibis, 1860, p.
37.
The diversity
of the sounds, both vocal and
instrumental,
made by the males of many birds
during the breeding-season, and
the diversity of the means for
producing such sounds, are highly
remarkable. We thus gain a high
idea of their importance for
sexual purposes, and are reminded
of the conclusion arrived at
as to insects. It is not difficult
to imagine the steps by which
the notes of a bird, primarily
used as a mere call or for some
other purpose, might have been
improved into a melodious love
song. In the case of the modified
feathers, by which the drumming,
whistling, or roaring noises
are produced, we know that some
birds during their courtship
flutter, shake, or rattle their
unmodified feathers together;
and if the females were led to
select the best performers, the
males which possessed the strongest
or thickest, or most attenuated
feathers, situated on any part
of the body, would be the most
successful; and thus by slow
degrees the feathers might be
modified to almost any extent.
The females, of course, would
not notice each slight successive
alteration in shape, but only
the sounds thus produced. It
is a curious fact that in the
same class of animals, sounds
so different as the drumming
of the snipe's tail, the tapping
of the woodpecker's beak, the
harsh trumpet-like cry of certain
water-fowl, the cooing of the
turtle-dove, and the song of
the nightingale, should all be
pleasing to the females of the
several species. But we must
not judge of the tastes of distinct
species by a uniform standard;
nor must we judge by the standard
of man's taste. Even with man,
we should remember what discordant
noises, the beating of tom-toms
and the shrill notes of reeds,
please the ears of savages. Sir
S. Baker remarks,* that "as the
stomach of the Arab prefers the
raw meat and reeking liver taken
hot from the animal, so does
his ear prefer his equally coarse
and discordant music to all other."
* The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,
1867, p. 203.
Love Antics
and Dances.- The curious love
gestures of some
birds have already been incidentally
noticed; so that little need
here be added. In Northern America
large numbers of a grouse, the
Tetrao phasianellus, meet every
morning during the breeding-season
on a selected level spot, and
here they run round and round
in a circle of about fifteen
or twenty feet in diameter, so
that the ground is worn quite
bare, like a fairy-ring. In these
partridge-dances, as they are
called by the hunters, the birds
assume the strangest attitudes,
and run round, some to the left
and some to the right. Audubon
describes the males of a heron
(Ardea herodias) as walking about
on their long legs with great
dignity before the females, bidding
defiance to their rivals. With
one of the disgusting carrion-vultures
(Cathartes jota) the same naturalist
states that "the gesticulations
and parade of the males at the
beginning of the love-season
are extremely ludicrous." Certain
birds perform their love-antics
on the wing, as we have seen
with the black African weaver,
instead of on the ground. During
the spring our little white-throat
(Sylvia cinerea) often rises
a few feet or yards in the air
above some bush, and "flutters
with a fitful and fantastic motion,
singing all the while, and then
drops to its perch." The great
English bustard throws himself
into indescribably odd attitudes
whilst courting the female, as
has been figured by Wolf. An
allied Indian bustard (Otis bengalensis)
at such times "rises perpendicularly
into the air with a hurried flapping
of his wings, raising his crest
and puffing out the feathers
of his neck and breast, and then
drops to the ground"; he repeats
this manoeuvre several times,
at the same time humming in a
peculiar tone. Such females as
happen to be near "obey this
saltatory summons," and when
they approach he trails his wings
and spreads his tail like a turkey-cock.*
* For Tetrao phasianellus, see
Richardson, Fauna, Bor. Americana,
p. 361, and for further particulars,
Capt. Blakiston, Ibis, 1863,
p. 125. For the Cathartes and
Ardea, Audubon, Ornithological
Biography, vol. ii., p. 51, and
vol. iii., p. 89. On the white-throat,
Macgillivray, History of British
Birds, vol. ii., p. 354. On the
Indian bustard, Jerdon, Birds
of India, vol. iii., p. 618.
But the most
curious case is afforded by
three allied genera
of Australian birds, the famous
bower-birds,- no doubt the co-descendants
of some ancient species which
first acquired the strange instinct
of constructing bowers for performing
their love-antics. The bowers
(see fig. 46), which, as we shall
hereafter see, are decorated
with feathers, shells, bones,
and leaves, are built on the
ground for the sole purpose of
courtship, for their nests are
formed in trees. Both sexes assist
in the erection of the bowers,
but the male is the principal
workman. So strong is this instinct
that it is practised under confinement,
and Mr. Strange has described*
the habits of some satin bower-birds
which he kept in an aviary in
New South Wales. "At times the
male will chase the female all
over the aviary, then go to the
bower, pick up a gay feather
or a large leaf, utter a curious
kind of note, set all his feathers
erect, run round the bower and
become so excited that his eyes
appear ready to start from his
bead; he continues opening first
one wing then the other, uttering
a low, whistling note, and, like
the domestic cock, seems to be
picking up something from the
ground, until at last the female
goes gently towards him." Captain
Stokes has described the habits
and "play-houses" of another
species, the great bower-bird,
which was seen "amusing itself
by flying backwards and forwards,
taking a shell alternately from
each side, and carrying it through
the archway in its mouth." These
curious creations, formed solely
as halls of assemblage, where
both sexes amuse themselves and
pay their court, must cost the
birds much labor. The bower,
for instance, of the fawn-breasted
species, is nearly four feet
in length, eighteen inches in
height, and is raised on a thick
platform of sticks.
* Gould, Handbook to the Birds
of Australia, vol. i., pp. 444,
449, 455. The bower of the satin
bower-bird may be seen in the
Zoological Society's Gardens,
Regent's Park.
Decoration.-
I will first discuss the cases
in which the males
are ornamented either exclusively
or in a much higher degree than
the females, and in a succeeding
chapter those in which both sexes
are equally ornamented, and finally
the rare cases in which the female
is somewhat more brightly-coloured
than the male. As with the artificial
ornaments used by savage and
civilised men, so with the natural
ornaments of birds, the head
is the chief seat of decoration.*
The ornaments, as mentioned at
the commencement of this chapter,
are wonderfully diversified.
The plumes on the front or back
of the head consist of variously-shaped
feathers, sometimes capable of
erection or expansion, by which
their beautiful colours are fully
displayed. Elegant ear-tufts
(see fig. 39, ante) are occasionally
present. The head is sometimes
covered with velvety down, as
with the pheasant; or is naked
and vividly coloured. The throat,
also, is sometimes ornamented
with a beard, wattles, or caruncles.
Such appendages are generally
brightly-coloured, and no doubt
serve as ornaments, though not
always ornamental in our eyes;
for whilst the male is in the
act of courting the female, they
often swell and assume vivid
tints, as in the male turkey.
At such times the fleshy appendages
about the head of the male tragopan
pheasant (Ceriornis temminckii)
swell into a large lappet on
the throat and into two horns,
one on each side of the splendid
topknot; and these are then coloured
of the most intense blue which
I have ever beheld.*(2) The African
hornbill (Bucorax abyssinicus)
inflates the scarlet bladder-like
wattle on its neck, and with
its wings drooping and tail expanded "makes
quite a grand appearance."*(3)
Even the iris of the eye is sometimes
more brightly-coloured in the
male than in the female; and
this is frequently the case with
the beak, for instance, in our
common blackbird. In Buceros
corrugatus, the whole beak and
immense casque are coloured more
conspicuously in the male than
in the female; and "the oblique
grooves upon the sides of the
lower mandible are peculiar to
the male sex."*(4)
* See remarks
to this effect, on the "Feeling of Beauty among
Animals," by Mr. J. Shaw, in
the Athenaeum, Nov. 24, 1866,
p. 681.
*(2) See Dr. Murie's account
with coloured figures in Proceedings,
Zoological Society, 1872, p.
730.
*(3) Mr. Monteiro, Ibis, vol.
iv., 1862, p. 339.
*(4) Land and Water, 1868, p.
217.
The head, again, often supports
fleshy appendages, filaments,
and solid protuberances. These,
if not common to both sexes,
are always confined to the males.
The solid protuberances have
been described in detail by Dr.
W. Marshall,* who shews that
they are formed either of cancellated
bone coated with skin, or of
dermal and other tissues. With
mammals true horns are always
supported on the frontal bones,
but with birds various bones
have been modified for this purpose;
and in species of the same group
the protuberances may have cores
of bone, or be quite destitute
of them, with intermediate gradations
connecting these two extremes.
Hence, as Dr. Marshall justly
remarks, variations of the most
different kinds have served for
the development through sexual
selection of these ornamental
appendages. Elongated feathers
or plumes spring from almost
every part of the body. The feathers
on the throat and breast are
sometimes developed into beautiful
ruffs and collars. The tail-feathers
are frequently increased in length;
as we see in the tail-coverts
of the peacock, and in the tail
itself of the Argus pheasant.
With the peacock even the bones
of the tail have been modified
to support the heavy tail-coverts.*(2)
The body of the Argus is not
larger than that of a fowl; yet
the length from the end of the
beak to the extremity of the
tail is no less than five feet
three inches,*(3) and that of
the beautifully ocellated secondary
wing-feathers nearly three feet.
In a small African night-jar
(Cosmetornis vexillarius) one
of the primary wing-feathers,
during the breeding-season, attains
a length of twenty-six inches,
whilst the bird itself is only
ten inches in length. In another
closely-allied genus of night-jars,
the shafts of the elongated wing-feathers
are naked, except at the extremity,
where there is a disc.*(4) Again,
in another genus of night-jars,
the tail-feathers are even still
more prodigiously developed.
In general the feathers of the
tail are more often elongated
than those of the wings, as any
great elongation of the latter
impedes flight. We thus see that
in closely-allied birds ornaments
of the same kind have been gained
by the males through the development
of widely different feathers.
* "Uber die Schadelhocker," Niederland.
Archiv. fur Zoologie, B. i.,
Heft 2, 1872.
*(2) Dr. W.
Marshall, "Uber
den Vogelschwanz," ibid., B.
i., Heft 2, 1872.
*(3) Jardine's Naturalist Library:
Birds, vol. xiv., p. 166.
*(4) Sclater, in the Ibis, vol.
vi., 1864, p. 114; Livingstone,
Expedition to the Zambesi, 1865,
p. 66.
It is a curious fact that the
feathers of species belonging
to very distinct groups have
been modified in almost exactly
the same peculiar manner. Thus
the wing-feathers in one of the
above-mentioned night-jars are
bare along the shaft, and terminate
in a disc; or are, as they are
sometimes called, spoon or racket-shaped.
Feathers of this kind occur in
the tail of a motmot (Eumomota
superciliaris), of a king-fisher,
finch, humming-bird, parrot,
several Indian drongos (Dicrurus
and Edolius, in one of which
the disc stands vertically),
and in the tail of certain birds
of paradise. In these latter
birds, similar feathers, beautifully
ocellated, ornament the head,
as is likewise the case with
some gallinaceous birds. In an
Indian bustard (Sypheotides auritus)
the feathers forming the ear-tufts,
which are about four inches in
length, also terminate in discs.*
It is a most singular fact that
the motmots, as Mr. Salvin has
clearly shown,*(2) give to their
tail feathers the racket-shape
by biting off the barbs, and,
further, that this continued
mutilation has produced a certain
amount of inherited effect.
* Jerdon, Birds of India, vol.
iii., p. 620.
*(2) Proceedings, Zoological
Society, 1873, p. 429.
Again, the barbs of the feathers
in various widely-distinct birds
are filamentous or plumose, as
with some herons, ibises, birds
of paradise, and Gallinaceae.
In other cases the barbs disappear,
leaving the shafts bare from
end to end; and these in the
tail of the Paradisea apoda attain
a length of thirty-four inches:*
in P. Papuana (see fig. 47) they
are much shorter and thin. Smaller
feathers when thus denuded appear
like bristles, as on the breast
of the turkey-cock. As any fleeting
fashion in dress comes to be
admired by man, so with birds
a change of almost any kind in
the structure or colouring of
the feathers in the male appears
to have been admired by the female.
The fact of the feathers in widely
distinct groups having been modified
in an analogous manner no doubt
depends primarily on all the
feathers having nearly the same
structure and manner of development,
and consequently tending to vary
in the same manner. We often
see a tendency to analogous variability
in the plumage of our domestic
breeds belonging to distinct
species. Thus top-knots have
appeared in several species.
In an extinct variety of the
turkey, the top-knot consisted
of bare quills surmounted with
plumes of down, so that they
somewhat resembled the racket-shaped
feathers above described. In
certain breeds of the pigeon
and fowl the feathers are plumose,
with some tendency in the shafts
to be naked. In the Sebastopol
goose the scapular feathers are
greatly elongated, curled, or
even spirally twisted, with the
margins plumose.*(2)
* Wallace, in Annals and Magazine
of Natural History, vol. xx.,
1857, p. 416, and in his Malay
Archipelago, vol. ii., 1869,
p. 390.
*(2) See my work on The Variation
of Animals and Plants under Domestication,
vol. i., pp. 289, 293.
In regard to
colour, hardly anything need
here be said, for
every one knows how splendid
are the tints of many birds,
and how harmoniously they are
combined. The colours are often
metallic and iridescent. Circular
spots are sometimes surrounded
by one or more differently shaded
zones, and are thus converted
into ocelli. Nor need much be
said on the wonderful difference
between the sexes of many birds.
The common peacock offers a striking
instance. Female birds of paradise
are obscurely coloured and destitute
of all ornaments, whilst the
males are probably the most highly
decorated of all birds, and in
so many different ways that they
must be seen to be appreciated.
The elongated and golden-orange
plumes which spring from beneath
the wings of the Paradisea apoda,
when vertically erected and made
to vibrate, are described as
forming a sort of halo, in the
centre of which the head "looks
like a little emerald sun with
its rays formed by the two plumes."*
In another most beautiful species
the head is bald, "and of a rich
cobalt blue, crossed by several
lines of black velvety feathers."*(2)
* Quoted from M. de Lafresnaye
in Annals and Mag. of Natural
History, vol. xiii., 1854, p.
157: see also Mr. Wallace's much
fuller account in vol. xx., 1857,
p. 412, and in his The Malay
Archipelago.
*(2) Wallace, The Malay Archipelago,
vol. ii., 1869, p. 405.
Male humming-birds
(see figs. 48 and 49) almost
vie with birds
of paradise in their beauty,
as every one will admit who has
seen Mr. Gould's splendid volumes,
or his rich collection. It is
very remarkable in how many different
ways these birds are ornamented.
Almost every part of their plumage
has been taken advantage of,
and modified; and the modifications
have been carried, as Mr. Gould
shewed me, to a wonderful extreme
in some species belonging to
nearly every sub-group. Such
cases are curiously like those
which we see in our fancy breeds,
reared by man for the sake of
ornament; certain individuals
originally varied in one character,
and other individuals of the
same species in other characters;
and these have been seized on
by man and much augmented- as
shewn by the tail of the fantail-pigeon,
the hood of the jacobin, the
beak and wattle of the carrier,
and so forth. The sole difference
between these cases is that in
the one, the result is due to
man's selection, whilst in the
other, as with humming-birds,
birds of paradise, &c., it is
due to the selection by the females
of the more beautiful males.
I will mention only one other
bird, remarkable from the extreme
contrast in colour between the
sexes, namely the famous bell-bird
(Chasmorhynchus niveus) of S.
America, the note of which can
be distinguished at the distance
of nearly three miles, and astonishes
every one when first hearing
it. The male is pure white, whilst
the female is dusky-green; and
white is a very rare colour in
terrestrial species of moderate
size and inoffensive habits.
The male, also, as described
by Waterton, has a spiral tube,
nearly three inches in length,
which rises from the base of
the beak. It is jet-black, dotted
over with minute downy feathers.
This tube can be inflated with
air, through a communication
with the palate; and when not
inflated hangs down on one side.
The genus consists of four species,
the males of which are very distinct,
whilst the females, as described
by Mr. Sclater in a very interesting
paper, closely resemble each
other, thus offering an excellent
instance of the common rule that
within the same group the males
differ much more from each other
than do the females. In a second
species (C. nudicollis) the male
is likewise snow-white, with
the exception of a large space
of naked skin on the throat and
round the eyes, which during
the breeding-season is of a fine
green colour. In a third species
(C. tricarunculatus) the head
and neck alone of the male are
white, the rest of the body being
chestnut-brown, and the male
of this species is provided with
three filamentous projections
half as long as the body- one
rising from the base of the beak,
and the two others from the corners
of the mouth.*
* Mr. Sclater, Intellectual
Observer, Jan., 1867. Waterton's
Wanderings, p. 118. See also
Mr. Salvin's interesting paper,
with a plate, in the Ibis, 1865,
p. 90.
The coloured
plumage and certain other ornaments
of the adult
males are either retained for
life, or are periodically renewed
during the summer and breeding-season.
At this same season the beak
and naked skin about the head
frequently change colour, as
with some herons, ibises, gulls,
one of the bell-birds just noticed, &c.
In the white ibis, the cheeks,
the inflatable skin of the throat,
and the basal portion of the
beak then become crimson.* In
one of the rails, Gallicrex cristatus,
a large red caruncle is developed
during this period on the head
of the male. So it is with a
thin horny crest on the beak
of one of the pelicans, P. erythrorhynchus;
for, after the breeding-season,
these horny crests are shed,
like horns from the heads of
stags, and the shore of an island
in a lake in Nevada was found
covered with these curious exuviae.*(2)
* Land and Water, 1867, p. 394.
*(2) Mr. D. G. Elliot, in Proc.
Zool. Soc., 1869, p. 589.
Changes of colour in the plumage
according to the season depend,
firstly on a double annual moult,
secondly on an actual change
of colour in the feathers themselves,
and thirdly on their dull-coloured
margins being periodically shed,
or on these three processes more
or less combined. The shedding
of the deciduary margins may
be compared with the shedding
of their down by very young birds;
for the down in most cases arises
from the summits of the first
true feathers.*
* Nitzsch's "Pterylography," edited
by P. L. Sclater, Ray Society,
1867, p. 14.
With respect to the birds which
annually undergo a double moult,
there are, firstly, some kinds,
for instance snipes, swallow-plovers
(Glareolae), and curlews, in
which the two sexes resemble
each other, and do not change
colour at any season. I do not
know whether the winter plumage
is thicker and warmer than the
summer plumage, but warmth seems
the most probable end attained
of a double moult, where there
is no change of colour. Secondly,
there are birds, for instance,
certain species of Totanus and
other Grallatores, the sexes
of which resemble each other,
but in which the summer and winter
plumage differ slightly in colour.
The difference, however, in these
cases is so small that it can
hardly be an advantage to them;
and it may, perhaps, be attributed
to the direct action of the different
conditions to which the birds
are exposed during the two seasons.
Thirdly, there are many other
birds the sexes of which are
alike, but which are widely different
in their summer and winter plumage.
Fourthly, there are birds the
sexes of which differ from each
other in colour; but the females,
though moulting twice, retain
the same colours throughout the
year, whilst the males undergo
a change of colour, sometimes
a great one, as with certain
bustards. Fifthly and lastly,
there are birds the sexes of
which differ from each other
each other in both their summer
and winter plumage; but the male
undergoes a greater amount of
change at each recurrent season
than the female of which the
ruff (Machetes pugnax) offers
a good instance.
With respect
to the cause or purpose of
the differences in
colour between the summer and
winter plumage, this may in some
instances, as with the ptarmigan,*
serve during both seasons as
a protection. When the difference
between the two plumages is slight
it may perhaps be attributed,
as already remarked, to the direct
action of the conditions of life.
But with many birds there can
hardly be a doubt that the summer
plumage is ornamental, even when
both sexes are alike. We may
conclude that this is the case
with many herons, egrets, &c.,
for they acquire their beautiful
plumes only during the breeding-season.
Moreover, such plumes, top-knots, &c.,
though possessed by both sexes,
are occasionally a little more
developed in the male than in
the female; and they resemble
the plumes and ornaments possessed
by the males alone of other birds.
It is also known that confinement,
by affecting the reproductive
system of male birds, frequently
checks the development of their
secondary sexual characters,
but has no immediate influence
on any other characters; and
I am informed by Mr. Bartlett
that eight or nine specimens
of the knot (Tringa canutus)
retained their unadorned winter
plumage in the Zoological Gardens
throughout the year, from which
fact we may infer that the summer
plumage, though common to both
sexes, partakes of the nature
of the exclusively masculine
plumage of many other birds.*(2)
* The brown mottled summer plumage
of the ptarmigan is of as much
importance to it, as a protection,
as the white winter plumage;
for in Scandinavia during the
spring, when the snow has disappeared,
this bird is known to suffer
greatly from birds of prey, before
it has acquired its summer dress:
see Wilhelm von Wright, in Lloyd,
Game Birds of Sweden, 1867, p.
125.
*(2) In regard
to the previous statements
on moulting, see,
on snipes, &c., Macgillivray,
Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. iv.,
p. 371; on Glareolae, curlews,
and bustards, Jerdon, Birds of
India, vol. iii., pp. 615, 630,
683; on Totanus, ibid., p. 700;
on the plumes of herons, ibid.,
p. 738, and Macgillivray, vol.
iv., pp. 435 and 444, and Mr.
Stafford Allen, in the Ibis,
vol. v., 1863, p. 33.
From the foregoing facts, more
especially from neither sex of
certain birds changing colour
during either annual moult, or
changing so slightly that the
change can hardly be of any service
to them, and from the females
of other species moulting twice
yet retaining the same colours
throughout the year, we may conclude
that the habit of annually moulting
twice has not been acquired in
order that the male should assume
an ornamental character during
the breeding-season; but that
the double moult, having been
originally acquired for some
distinct purpose, has subsequently
been taken advantage of in certain
cases for gaining a nuptial plumage.
It appears at first sight a
surprising circumstance that
some closely-allied species should
regularly undergo a double annual
moult, and others only a single
one. The ptarmigan, for instance,
moults twice or even thrice in
the year, and the blackcock only
once: some of the splendidly
coloured honey-suckers (Nectariniae)
of India and some sub-genera
of obscurely coloured pipits
(Anthus) have a double, whilst
others have only a single annual
moult.* But the gradations in
the manner of moulting, which
are known to occur with various
birds, shew us how species, or
whole groups, might have originally
acquired their double annual
moult, or having once gained
the habit, have again lost it.
With certain bustards and plovers
the vernal moult is far from
complete, some feathers being
renewed, and some changed in
colour. There is also reason
to believe that with certain
bustards and rail-like birds,
which properly undergo a double
moult, some of the older males
retain their nuptial plumage
throughout the year. A few highly
modified feathers may merely
be added during the spring to
the plumage, as occurs with the
disc-formed tail-feathers of
certain drongos (Bhringa) in
India, and with the elongated
feathers on the back, neck, and
crest of certain herons. By such
steps as these, the vernal moult
might be rendered more and more
complete, until a perfect double
moult was acquired. Some of the
birds of paradise retain their
nuptial feathers throughout the
year, and thus have only a single
moult; others cast them directly
after the breeding-season, and
thus have a double moult; and
others again cast them at this
season during the first year,
but not afterwards; so that these
latter species are intermediate
in their manner of moulting.
There is also a great difference
with many birds in the length
of time during which the two
annual plumages are retained;
so that the one might come to
be retained for the whole year,
and the other completely lost.
Thus in the spring Machetes pugnax
retains his ruff for barely two
months. In Natal the male widow-bird
(Chera progne) acquires his fine
plumage and long tail-feathers
in December or January, and loses
them in March; so that they are
retained only for about three
months. Most species, which undergo
a double moult, keep their ornamental
feathers for about six months.
The male, however, of the wild
Gallus bankiva retains his neck-hackles
for nine or ten months; and when
these are cast off, the underlying
black feathers on the neck are
fully exposed to view. But with
the domesticated descendant of
this species, the neck-hackles
of the male are immediately replaced
by new ones; so that we here
see, as to part of the plumage,
a double moult changed under
domestication into a single moult.*(2)
* On the moulting of the ptarmigan,
see Gould's Birds of Great Britain.
On the honey-suckers, Jerdon,
Birds of India, vol. i., pp.
359, 365, 369. On the moulting
of Anthus, see Blyth, in Ibis,
1867, p. 32.
*(2) For the foregoing statements
in regard to partial moults,
and on old males retaining their
nuptial plumage, see Jerdon,
on bustards and plovers, in Birds
of India, vol. iii., pp. 617,
637, 709, 711. Also Blyth in
Land and Water, 1867, p. 84.
On the moulting of Paradisea,
see an interesting article by
Dr. W. Marshall, Archives Neerlandaises,
tom. vi., 1871. On the Vidua,
Ibis, vol. iii., 1861, p. 133.
On the Drongoshrikes, Perdon,
ibid., vol. i., p. 435. On the
vernal moult of the Herodias
bubulcus, Mr. S. S. Allen, in
Ibis, 1863, p. 33. On Gallus
bankiva, Blyth, in Annals and
Mag. of Natural History, vol.
i., 1848, p. 455; see, also,
on this subject, my Variation
of Animals under Domestication,
vol. i., p. 236.
The common drake
(Anas boschas), after the breeding-season,
is
well known to lose his male plumage
for a period of three months,
during which time he assumes
that of the female. The male
pin-tail duck (Anas acuta) loses
his plumage for the shorter period
of six weeks or two months; and
Montagu remarks that "this double
moult within so short a time
is a most extraordinary circumstance,
that seems to bid defiance to
all human reasoning." But the
believer in the gradual modification
of species will be far from feeling
surprise at finding gradations
of all kinds. If the male pin-tail
were to acquire his new plumage
within a still shorter period,
the new male feathers would almost
necessarily be mingled with the
old, and both with some proper
to the female; and this apparently
is the case with the male of
a not distantly-allied bird,
namely the Merganser serrator,
for the males are said to "undergo
a change of plumage, which assimilates
them in some measure to the female." By
a little further acceleration
in the process, the double moult
would be completely lost.*
* See Macgillivray, Hist. British
Birds (vol. v., pp. 34, 70, and
223), on the moulting of the
Anatidae, with quotations from
Waterton and Montagu. Also Yarrell,
History of British Birds, vol.
iii., p. 243.
Some male birds,
as before stated, become more
brightly coloured
in the spring, not by a vernal
moult, but either by an actual
change of colour in the feathers,
or by their obscurely-coloured
deciduary margins being shed.
Changes of colour thus caused
may last for a longer or shorter
time. In the Pelecanus onocrotalus
a beautiful rosy tint, with lemon-coloured
marks on the breast, overspreads
the whole plumage in the spring;
but these tints, as Mr. Sclater
states, "do not last long, disappearing
generally in about six weeks
or two months after they have
been attained." Certain finches
shed the margins of their feathers
in the spring, and then become
brighter coloured, while other
finches undergo no such change.
Thus the Fringilla tristis of
the United States (as well as
many other American species)
exhibits its bright colours only
when the winter is past, whilst
our goldfinch, which exactly
represents this bird in habits,
and our siskin, which represents
it still more closely in structure,
undergo no such annual change.
But a difference of this kind
in the plumage of allied species
is not surprising, for with the
common linnet, which belongs
to the same family, the crimson
forehead and breast are displayed
only during the summer in England,
whilst in Madeira these colours
are retained throughout the year.*
* On the pelican, see Sclater,
in Proc. Zool. Soc., 1868, p.
265. On the American finches,
see Audubon, Ornithological Biography,
vol. i., pp. 174, 221, and Jerdon,
Birds of India, vol. ii., p.
383. On the Fringilla cannabina
of Madeira, Mr. E. Vernon Harcourt,
Ibis, vol. v., 1863, p. 230.
Display by Male
Birds of their Plumage.- Ornaments
of all kinds,
whether permanently or temporarily
gained, are sedulously displayed
by the males, and apparently
serve to excite, attract, or
fascinate the females. But the
males will sometimes display
their ornaments, when not in
the presence of the females,
as occasionally occurs with grouse
at their balz-places, and as
may be noticed with the peacock;
this latter bird, however, evidently
wishes for a spectator of some
kind, and, as I have often seen,
will show off his finery before
poultry, or even pigs.* All naturalists
who have closely attended to
the habits of birds, whether
in a state of nature or under
confinement, are unanimously
of opinion that the males take
delight in displaying their beauty.
Audubon frequently speaks of
the male as endeavouring in various
ways to charm the female. Mr.
Gould, after describing some
peculiarities in a male humming-bird,
says he has no doubt that it
has the power of displaying them
to the greatest advantage before
the female. Dr. Jerdon*(2) insists
that the beautiful plumage of
the male serves "to fascinate
and attract the female." Mr.
Bartlett, at the Zoological Gardens,
expressed himself to me in the
strongest terms to the same effect.
* See also Ornamental Poultry,
by Rev. E. S. Dixon, 1848, p.
8.
*(2) Birds of India, introduct.,
vol. i., p. xxiv.; on the peacock,
vol. iii., p. 507. See Gould's
Introduction to Trochilidae,
1861, pp. 15 and 111.
It must be a
grand sight in the forests
of India "to come
suddenly on twenty or thirty
pea-fowl, the males displaying
their gorgeous trains, and strutting
about in all the pomp of pride
before the gratified females." The
wild turkey-cock erects his glittering
plumage, expands his finely-zoned
tail and barred wing-feather,
and altogether, with his crimson
and blue wattles, makes a superb,
though, to our eye, grotesque
appearance. Similar facts have
already been given with respect
to grouse of various kinds. Turning
to another Order: The male Rupicola
crocea (see fig. 50) is one of
the most beautiful birds in the
world, being of a splendid orange,
with some of the feathers curiously
truncated and plumose. The female
is brownish-green, shaded with
red, and has a much smaller crest.
Sir R. Schomburgk has described
their courtship; he found one
of their meeting-places where
ten males and two females were
present. The space was from four
to five feet in diameter, and
appeared to have been cleared
of every blade of grass and smoothed
as if by human hands. A male "was
capering, to the apparent delight
of several others. Now spreading
its wings, throwing up its head,
or opening its tail like a fan;
now strutting about with a hopping
gait until tired, when it gabbled
some kind of note, and was relieved
by another. Thus three of them
successively took the field,
and then, with self-approbation,
withdrew to rest." The Indians,
in order to obtain their skins,
wait at one of the meeting-places
till the birds are eagerly engaged
in dancing, and then are able
to kill with their poisoned arrows
four or five males, one after
the other.* With birds of paradise
a dozen or more full-plumaged
males congregate in a tree to
hold a dancing-party, as it is
called by the natives: and here
they fly about, raise their wings,
elevate their exquisite plumes,
and make them vibrate, and the
whole tree seems, as Mr. Wallace
remarks, to be filled with waving
plumes. When thus engaged, they
become so absorbed that a skilful
archer may shoot nearly the whole
party. These birds, when kept
in confinement in the Malay Archipelago,
are said to take much care in
keeping their feathers clean;
often spreading them out, examining
them, and removing every speck
of dirt. One observer, who kept
several pairs alive, did not
doubt that the display of the
male was intended to please the
female.*(2)
* Journal of R. Geograph. Soc.,
vol. x., 1840, p. 236.
*(2) Annals and Mag. of Nat.
Hist., vol. xiii., 1854, p. 157;
also Wallace, ibid., vol. xx.,
1857, p. 412, and The Malay Archipelago,
vol. ii., 1869, p. 252. Also
Dr. Bennett, as quoted by Brehm,
Illustriertes Thierleben, B.
iii., s. 326.
The gold and Amherst pheasants
during their courtship not only
expand and raise their splendid
frills, but twist them, as I
have myself seen, obliquely towards
the female on whichever side
she may be standing, obviously
in order that a large surface
may be displayed before her.*
They likewise turn their beautiful
tails and tail-coverts a little
towards the same side. Mr. Bartlett
has observed a male Polyplectron
(see fig. 51) in the act of courtship,
and has shown me a specimen stuffed
in the attitude then assumed.
The tail and wing-feathers of
this bird are ornamented with
beautiful ocelli, like those
on the peacock's train. Now when
the peacock displays himself,
he expands and erects his tail
transversely to his body, for
he stands in front of the female,
and has to shew off, at the same
time, his rich blue throat and
breast. But the breast of the
Polyplectron is obscurely coloured,
and the ocelli are not confined
to the tail-feathers. Consequently
the Polyplectron does not stand
in front of the female; but he
erects and expands his tail-feathers
a little obliquely, lowering
the expanded wing on the same
side, and raising that on the
opposite side. In this attitude
the ocelli over the whole body
are exposed at the same time
before the eyes of the admiring
female in one grand bespangled
expanse. To whichever side she
may turn, the expanded wings
and the obliquely-held tail are
turned towards her. The male
tragopan pheasant acts in nearly
the same manner, for he raises
the feathers of the body, though
not the wing itself, on the side
which is opposite to the female,
and which would otherwise be
concealed, so that nearly all
the beautifully spotted feathers
are exhibited at the same time.
* Mr. T. W. Wood has given (The
Student, April, 1870, p. 115)
a full account of this manner
of display, by the gold pheasant
and by the Japanese pheasant,
Ph. versicolor; and he calls
it the lateral or one-sided display.
The Argus pheasant affords a
much more remarkable case. The
immensely developed secondary
wing-feathers are confined to
the male; and each is ornamented
with a row of from twenty to
twenty-three ocelli, above an
inch in diameter. These feathers
are also elegantly marked with
oblique stripes and rows of spots
of a dark colour, like those
on the skin of a tiger and leopard
combined. These beautiful ornaments
are hidden until the male shows
himself off before the female.
He then erects his tail, and
expands his wing-feathers into
a great, almost upright, circular
fan or shield, which is carried
in front of the body. The neck
and head are held on one side,
so that they are concealed by
the fan; but the bird in order
to see the female, before whom
he is displaying himself, sometimes
pushes his head between two of
the long wing-feathers (as Mr.
Bartlett has seen), and then
presents a grotesque appearance.
This must be a frequent habit
with the bird in a state of nature,
for Mr. Bartlett and his son
on examining some perfect skins
sent from the East, found a place
between two of the feathers which
was much frayed, as if the head
had here frequently been pushed
through. Mr. Wood thinks that
the male can also peep at the
female on one side, beyond the
margin of the fan.
The ocelli on the wing-feathers
are wonderful objects; for they
are so shaded that, as the Duke
of Argyll remarks,* they stand
out like balls lying loosely
within sockets. When I looked
at the specimen in the British
Museum, which is mounted with
the wings expanded and trailing
downwards, I was however greatly
disappointed, for the ocelli
appeared flat, or even concave.
But Mr. Gould soon made the case
clear to me, for he held the
feathers erect. in the position
in which they would naturally
be displayed, and now from the
light shining on them from above
each ocellus at once resembled
the ornament called a ball and
socket. These feathers have been
shewn to several artists, and
all have expressed their admiration
at the perfect shading. It may
well be asked, could such artistically
shaded ornaments have been formed
by means of sexual selection?
But it will be convenient to
defer giving an answer to this
question until we treat in the
next chapter of the principle
of gradation.
* The Reign of Law, 1867, p.
203.
The foregoing remarks relate
to the secondary wing-feathers,
but the primary wing-feathers,
which in most gallinaceous birds
are uniformly coloured, are in
the Argus pheasant equally wonderful.
They are of a soft brown tint
with numerous dark spots, each
of which consists of two or three
black dots with a surrounding
dark zone. But the chief ornament
is a space parallel to the dark-blue
shaft, which in outline forms
a perfect second feather lying
within the true feather. This
inner part is coloured of a lighter
chestnut, and is thickly dotted
with minute white points. I have
shewn this feather to several
persons, and many have admired
it even more than the ball and
socket feathers, and have declared
that it was more like a work
of art than of nature. Now these
feathers are quite hidden on
all ordinary occasions, but are
fully displayed, together with
the long secondary feathers,
when they are all expanded together
so as to form the great fan or
shield.
The case of the male Argus pheasant
is eminently interesting, because
it affords good evidence that
the most refined beauty may serve
as a sexual charm, and for no
other purpose. We must conclude
that this is the case, as the
secondary and primary wing-feathers
are not at all displayed, and
the ball and socket ornaments
are not exhibited in full perfection
until the male assumes the attitude
of courtship. The Argus pheasant
does not possess brilliant colours,
so that his success in love appears
to depend on the great size of
his plumes, and on the elaboration
of the most elegant patterns.
Many will declare that it is
utterly incredible that a female
bird should be able to appreciate
fine shading and exquisite patterns,
It is undoubtedly a marvellous
fact that she should possess
this almost human degree of taste.
He who thinks that he can safely
gauge the discrimination and
taste of the lower animals may
deny that the female Argus pheasant
can appreciate such refined beauty;
but he will then be compelled
to admit that the extraordinary
attitudes assumed by the male
during the act of courtship,
by which the wonderful beauty
of his plumage is fully displayed,
are purposeless; and this is
a conclusion which I for one
will never admit.
Although so many pheasants and
allied gallinaceous birds carefully
display their plumage before
the females, it is remarkable,
as Mr. Bartlett informs me, that
this is not the case with the
dull-coloured Eared and Cheer
pheasants (Crossoptilon auritum
and Phasianus wallichii); so
that these birds seem conscious
that they have little beauty
to display. Mr. Bartlett has
never seen the males of either
of these species fighting together,
though he has not had such good
opportunities for observing the
Cheer or the Eared pheasant.
Mr. Jenner Weir, also, finds
that all male birds with rich
or strongly-characterised plumage
are more quarrelsome than the
dull-coloured species belonging
to the same groups. The goldfinch,
for instance, is far more pugnacious
than the linnet, and the blackbird
than the thrush. Those birds
which undergo a seasonal change
of plumage likewise become much
more pugnacious at the period
when they are most gaily ornamented.
No doubt the males of some obscurely-coloured
birds fight desperately together,
but it appears that when sexual
selection has been highly influential,
and has given bright colours
to the males of any species,
it has also very often given
a strong tendency to pugnacity.
We shall meet with nearly analogous
cases when we treat of mammals.
On the other hand, with birds
the power of song and brilliant
colours have rarely been both
acquired by the males of the
same species; but in this case
the advantage gained would have
been the same, namely, success
in charming the female. Nevertheless
it must be owned that the males
of several brilliantly coloured
birds have had their feathers
specially modified for the sake
of producing instrumental music,
though the beauty of this cannot
be compared, at least according
to our taste, with that of the
vocal music of many songsters.
We will now
turn to male birds which are
not ornamented in any
high degree, but which nevertheless
display during their courtship
whatever attractions they may
possess. These cases are in some
respects more curious than the
foregoing, and have been but
little noticed. I owe the following
facts to Mr. Weir, who has long
kept confined birds of many kinds,
including all the British Fringillidae
and Emberizidae. The facts have
been selected from a large body
of valuable notes kindly sent
me by him. The bullfinch makes
his advances in front of the
female, and then puffs out his
breast, so that many more of
the crimson feathers are seen
at once than otherwise would
be the case. At the same time
he twists and bows his black
tail from side to side in a ludicrous
manner. The male chaffinch also
stands in front of the female,
thus showing his red breast and "blue
bell," as the fanciers call his
head; the wings at the same time
being slightly expanded, with
the pure white bands on the shoulders
thus rendered conspicuous. The
common linnet distends his rosy
breast, slightly expands his
brown wings and tail, so as to
make the best of them by exhibiting
their white edgings. We must,
however, be cautious in concluding
that the wings are spread out
solely for display, as some birds
do so whose wings are not beautiful.
This is the case with the domestic
cock, but it is always the wing
on the side opposite to the female
which is expanded, and at the
same time scraped on the ground.
The male gold-finch behaves differently
from all other finches: his wings
are beautiful, the shoulders
being black, with the dark-tipped
wing-feathers spotted with white
and edged with golden yellow.
When he courts the female, he
sways his body from side to side,
and quickly turns his slightly
expanded wings first to one side,
then to the other, with a golden
flashing effect. Mr. Weir informs
me that no other British finch
turns thus from side to side
during his courtship, not even
the closely-allied male siskin,
for he would not thus add to
his beauty.
Most of the
British buntings are plain
coloured birds; but
in the spring the feathers on
the head of the male reed-bunting
(Emberiza schaeniculus) acquire
a fine black colour by the abrasion
of the dusky tips; and these
are erected during the act of
courtship. Mr. Weir has kept
two species of Amadina from Australia:
the A. castanotis is a very small
and chastely coloured finch,
with a dark tail, white rump,
and jet-black upper tail-coverts,
each of the latter being marked
with three large conspicuous
oval spots of white.* This species,
when courting the female, slightly
spreads out and vibrates these
parti-coloured tail-coverts in
a very peculiar manner. The male
Amadina lathami behaves very
differently, exhibiting before
the female his brilliantly spotted
breast, scarlet rump, and scarlet
upper tail-coverts. I may here
add from Dr. Jerdon that the
Indian bulbul (Pycnonotus hoemorrhous)
has its under tail-coverts of
a crimson colour, and these,
it might be thought could never
be well exhibited; but the bird "when
excited often spreads them out
laterally so that they can be
seen even from above."*(2) The
crimson under tail-coverts of
some other birds as with one
of the woodpeckers, Picus major,
can be seen without any such
display. The common pigeon has
iridescent feathers on the breast,
and every one must have seen
how the male inflates his breast
whilst courting the female, thus
shewing them off to the best
advantage. One of the beautiful
bronze-winged pigeons of Australia
(Ocyphaps lophotes) behaves,
as described to me by Mr. Weir,
very differently: the male, whilst
standing before the female, lowers
his head almost to the ground,
spreads out and raises his tail,
and half expands his wings. He
then alternately and slowly raises
and depresses his body, so that
the iridescent metallic feathers
are all seen at once, and glitter
in the sun.
* For the description of these
birds, see Gould's Handbook of
the Birds of Australia, vol.
i., 1865, p. 417.
*(2) Birds of India, vol. ii.,
p. 96.
Sufficient facts have now been
given to shew with what care
male birds display their various
charms, and this they do with
the utmost skill. Whilst preening
their feathers, they have frequent
opportunities for admiring themselves,
and of studying how best to exhibit
their beauty. But as all the
males of the same species display
themselves in exactly the same
manner, it appears that actions,
at first perhaps intentional,
have become instinctive. If so,
we ought not to accuse birds
of conscious vanity; yet when
we see a peacock strutting about,
with expanded and quivering tail-feathers,
he seems the very emblem of pride
and vanity.
The various
ornaments possessed by the
males are certainly of
the highest importance to them,
for in some cases they have been
acquired at the expense of greatly
impeded powers of flight or of
running. The African night-jar
(Cosmetornis), which during the
pairing-season has one of its
primary wing-feathers developed
into a streamer of very great
length, is thereby much retarded
in its flight, although at other
times remarkable for its swiftness.
The "unwieldy size" of the secondary
wing-feather of the male Argus
pheasant is said "almost entirely
to deprive the bird of flight." The
fine plumes of male birds of
paradise trouble them during
a high wind. The extremely long
tail-feathers of the male widow-birds
(Vidua) of Southern Africa render "their
flight heavy;" but as soon as
these are cast off they fly as
well as the females. As birds
always breed when food is abundant,
the males probably do not suffer
much inconvenience in searching
for food from their impeded powers
of movement; but there can hardly
be a doubt that they must be
much more liable to be struck
down by birds of prey. Nor can
we doubt that the long train
of the peacock and the long tail
and wing-feathers of the Argus
pheasant must render them an
easier prey to any prowling tiger-cat
than would otherwise be the case.
Even the bright colours of many
male birds cannot fail to make
them conspicuous to their enemies
of all kinds. Hence, as Mr. Gould
has remarked, it probably is
that such birds are generally
of a shy disposition, as if conscious
that their beauty was a source
of danger, and are much more
difficult to discover or approach,
than the sombre coloured and
comparatively tame females or
than the young and as yet unadorned
males.*
* On the Cosmetornis, see Livingstone's
Expedition to the Zambesi, 1865,
p. 66. On the Argus pheasant,
Jardine's Nat. Hist. Lib.: Birds,
vol. xiv., p. 167. On birds of
paradise, Lesson, quoted by Brehm,
Thierleben, B. iii., s. 325.
On the widow-bird, Barrow's Travels
in Africa, vol. i., p. 243, and
Ibis. vol., iii., 1861 p. 133.
Mr. Gould, on the shyness of
male birds, Handbook to Birds
of Australia, vol. i., 1865,
pp. 210, 457
It is a more
curious fact that the males
of some birds which
are provided with special weapons
for battle, and which in a state
of nature are so pugnacious that
they often kill each other, suffer
from possessing certain ornaments.
Cock-fighters trim the hackles
and cut off the combs and gills
of their cocks; and the birds
are then said to be dubbed. An
undubbed bird, as Mr. Tegetmeier
insists, "is at a fearful disadvantage;
the comb and gills offer an easy
hold to his adversary's beak,
and as a cock always strikes
where he holds, when once he
has seized his foe, he has him
entirely in his power. Even supposing
that the bird is not killed,
the loss of blood suffered by
an undubbed cock is much greater
than that sustained by one that
has been trimmed."* Young turkey-cocks
in fighting always seize hold
of each other's wattles; and
I presume that the old birds
fight in the same manner. It
may perhaps be objected that
the comb and wattles are not
ornamental, and cannot be of
service to the birds in this
way; but even to our eyes, the
beauty of the glossy black Spanish
cock is much enhanced by his
white face and crimson comb;
and no one who has ever seen
the splendid blue wattles of
the male tragopan pheasant distended
in courtship can for a moment
doubt that beauty is the object
gained. From the foregoing facts
we clearly see that the plumes
and other ornaments of the males
must be of the highest importance
to them; and we further see that
beauty is even sometimes more
important than success in battle.
* Tegetmeier, The Poultry Book,
1866, p. 139. |