. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. ay crowds of Buceros birds kept con-stantly flying overhead with their peculiar noisy scream andthe breeze-like whirr of their wings, while from far in the woodscame the softer koo-ow of the Argus pheasants, than which,among all the feathered tribes, scarcely any bird is Sumatra, the Argus occupies the place held in Java by thePeacock—a bird belonging to the same natural family—whichseen in its native wildness is unsurpassed for brilliancy ofcolour and decorative appenda
. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. ay crowds of Buceros birds kept con-stantly flying overhead with their peculiar noisy scream andthe breeze-like whirr of their wings, while from far in the woodscame the softer koo-ow of the Argus pheasants, than which,among all the feathered tribes, scarcely any bird is Sumatra, the Argus occupies the place held in Java by thePeacock—a bird belonging to the same natural family—whichseen in its native wildness is unsurpassed for brilliancy ofcolour and decorative appendages, but its ornamentation is toogaudy for long contemplation ; while in the case of the ArgusPheasant one may admire feather by feather, and the samefeather again and again, and daily see new beauties. The tailof the peacock is formed by a great development of what istechnically known as the upper tail coverts, while that of theArgus pheasant is formed chiefly by an enormous elongationof the two tail quills and of the secondary wing feathers, notwo of which are exactly the same; and the closer they are. *|
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
