StNicholas [serial] . A SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER. One of the common instances in which the tail-feathers are lengthened as ornaments. form far oftener than the wings. With manybirds the tail is really a hindrance to flight. In Africa Mr. Roosevelt observed that the long-tailed male whydah finches were slower than theirmates, whose tails were of the usual length, sothat the males fell behind when a flock took wing. Among the pheasants such ornamental tails areof common occurrence, and there are numerousexamples among other families of birds. Perhaps taio.] NATURE AND SCIENCE FOR YOUNG FOLKS 84
StNicholas [serial] . A SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER. One of the common instances in which the tail-feathers are lengthened as ornaments. form far oftener than the wings. With manybirds the tail is really a hindrance to flight. In Africa Mr. Roosevelt observed that the long-tailed male whydah finches were slower than theirmates, whose tails were of the usual length, sothat the males fell behind when a flock took wing. Among the pheasants such ornamental tails areof common occurrence, and there are numerousexamples among other families of birds. Perhaps taio.] NATURE AND SCIENCE FOR YOUNG FOLKS 843 any greater development of tail than in our com-mon barn-swallow should be regarded as moreornamental than useful. If we turn our attention now to the wings ofbirds, we shall look in vain for anything like such. several weeks its petals began to droop a visitor noticed the extraordinary resemblanceto the features of the late President of the UnitedStates, William McKinley, when looked at froma particular point of view, and the flower hassince been called the McKinley lily. Everyeffort is being made to keep it in existence in its THE PENNANT-WINGED of the rare instances in which the flight-feathers are lengthened as ornaments. numerous and embarrassing shapes. So rarelydo such modifications of wings occur that I canthink of only one striking example among thebirds of the world —the pennant-winged nightjar,a kind of night-hawk of the tropics. It is inter-esting to note this bird is a night species, probablywith very few, if any, enemies to make strongflight necessary. Thus we have seen that the tail is not evenstrictly necessary to flight, though the tails offlightless birds are commonly, if not always, verysmall or almost wholly wanting, and the birds ofthe best powers
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidstnicholasse, bookyear1873
