. The bird, its form and function . Fig. 223.—Ruff with battle-cloak partly moulted. were adorned respectively,—plain gray, dotted gray,chestnut barred with black, and a rich golden no females were present, yet their fighting instinctoften cropped out and a pair of them would dart and side-step about each other, bills held low and far advanced,ruff spread out from the breast and trailing low, hidingalmost the whole body. Now and then one of the fencerswould make a vicious dash, sending his bill through the 2«0 The Bird feather shield of his opponent. But the force of theblow woul
. The bird, its form and function . Fig. 223.—Ruff with battle-cloak partly moulted. were adorned respectively,—plain gray, dotted gray,chestnut barred with black, and a rich golden no females were present, yet their fighting instinctoften cropped out and a pair of them would dart and side-step about each other, bills held low and far advanced,ruff spread out from the breast and trailing low, hidingalmost the whole body. Now and then one of the fencerswould make a vicious dash, sending his bill through the 2«0 The Bird feather shield of his opponent. But the force of theblow would spend itself on the inch of space between theshield and the feathers of the birds breast. When, inhis native haunts, the Ruff has conquered his rival, histriumphant dances before the female are most these facts are not exactly pertinent to the physical. Fig 224.—Breast ornament of a Wild Turkeycock. life of the bird, yet I mention them to show to what prac-tical, as well as aesthetic, uses the development of someportion of the birds plumage may be devoted. What a contrast to the cloak of the Ruff is the pectoraldecoration of the Wild Turkeycock: a great tuft ofcoarse, black hair-like feathers, like the tail of a horse Heads and Necks 281 in miniature, growing almost a foot in length from thecentre of the breast! The length of the neck of birds is often correlatedwith that of the legs,—a long-legged bird of necessity re-quiring a long neck to permit its bill to reach the and swans are an exception, and in their case we
Size: 1373px × 1820px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1906
