Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/389

Rh of such otherwise useless, inconvenient, arid vitally expensive excrescences.

Sometimes the crest is produced by some other means than that of a mass of plumes. Besides the well-known fleshy comb of our friend chanticleer, there is the horny helmet of our old acquaintance the cassowary, and the quaint protuberances on the beak of the jacana. Most eccentric of all is the device adopted by the hornbills, whose name sufficiently indicates their peculiarity in this respect. The beak in these birds is prolonged above into a single unicorn-like process, extravagantly disproportioned to the general size of its wearer.

On the other hand, it may be noted that most small singing-birds, or other species which live on seeds, grains, insects, and mixed small food, are destitute of tufted ornaments, as well as of brilliant coloring.

The lappets, frills, or other neck-pieces of so many decorated species must not pass entirely unnoticed in this review of æsthetic devices among birds. Beginning with the mere burnished breast-plumage of the pigeon, or the crimson stomacher of the robin, they become at last, in the humming-birds, sun-birds, and other tropical species, the most exquisite drapery of amethyst, topaz, emerald, or golden bronze. The so-called beard of the turkey is a special example of a very aberrant type. The ruff derives his English name from a similar peculiarity.

The birds-of-paradise unite all these modes of ornamentation in the highest degree, and with the most harmonious results. They join the graceful plumes of the ostrich to the dainty coloring of the sun-bird. Crests almost as largely developed as that of the umbrella-bird overshadow their beautiful heads; frills as full as those of the hummingbirds fall down in metallic splendor before their gorgeous necks. And, if any proof be wanting of the connection between the nature-of the food and the general beauty of the plumage, it may be found in the fact that these royally-attired creatures are first cousins of our own dingy crows and jackdaws; but, while the crow seeks his livelihood among the insects and carrion of an English plowed field, the bird-of-paradise regales his lordly palate on the crimson and purple fruits which gleam out amid the embowering foliage of Malayan forests.

Equally magnificent are the members of the genus Epimachus, inhabitants of the same brilliant archipelago. Their long, silky plumes float behind them in the same graceful curves; their burnished necks are adorned with the same glancing hues of ruby and emerald. Yet they are surpassed in one respect by their distant relatives, the lyrebirds, first cousins of our diminutive English wrens. Though destitute of brilliant coloring and metallic sheen, these curious birds exhibit in their long and beautiful tails the only undoubted example among the lower animals of a love for symmetrical patterns.

I have only bethought me now of a few among the countless modifications which feathers undergo, for the aesthetic gratification of their