. On the natural history and classification of birds . icapidce ; none of which, by the most minuteanalysis, can be reduced to rasorial types. There is apeculiarity, nevertheless, among these, which deservesnotice ; for the greater part possess only a naked skinround the eye, similar to that in the genus Perspicilla(fig» 11.) among the water chats. The only natatorialbirds we can recollect ashaving naked appendages,are the lobed duck of NewHolland and the commonMuscovy duck: there isone example in the tenui-rostral tribe, and none inthe fissirostral.(39.) Crests are the most beautiful appendag
. On the natural history and classification of birds . icapidce ; none of which, by the most minuteanalysis, can be reduced to rasorial types. There is apeculiarity, nevertheless, among these, which deservesnotice ; for the greater part possess only a naked skinround the eye, similar to that in the genus Perspicilla(fig» 11.) among the water chats. The only natatorialbirds we can recollect ashaving naked appendages,are the lobed duck of NewHolland and the commonMuscovy duck: there isone example in the tenui-rostral tribe, and none inthe fissirostral.(39.) Crests are the most beautiful appendages to theheads of birds; and give to those, which are even of theplainest colours, an imposing and attractive use of the crest is twofold : in most birds so distin-guished, it is chiefly an ornament, given as a mark ofdistinction, almost exclusively, to the male ; in others, itnot only is ornamental, but useful as a sort of explain this novel assertion, we can safely say thatmany are the beautiful crested woodpeckers of the. EXTERNAL ANATOMY. CRESTS. 31 Brazilian forests, which have scared us from a steadyaim of our gun, by the sudden manner in which theythrew up their crests the moment they discovered theirdanger, uttering at the same time a loud and discordantscream. The sensation, it is true, lasts but for a mo-ment ; but the whole is so sudden and unexpected, thatthe sportsman is involuntarily startled ; and this mo-mentary feeling gives time for the bird to dart amongthe thick foliage of the forest, and thus effect its crest of a bird is always erected under a sense ofdanger or of anger, as every body knows who has seena cockatoo; so that it has obviously been intended bynature to perform the office of intimidating, howevermomentarily, the foes of its possessor. We have else-where shown* that chests are one of the most certainindications of rasorial types; because this appendage isintended to be analogous to the horns of ruminatingquad
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookidonnaturalh, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1836
