. The naturalist in La Plata. and instead of resenting this visit as anunwarranted intrusion on their domain, as theywould certainly resent the approach of almost anyother bird, they welcome it with notes and signs ofpleasure. Advancing to the visitor, they placethemselves behind it; then all three, keeping step,begin a rapid march, uttering resonant drummingnotes in time with their movements ; the notes of thepair behind being emitted in a stream, like a drum-roll, while the leader utters loud single notes atregular intervals. The march ceases; the leaderelevates his wings and stands erect an
. The naturalist in La Plata. and instead of resenting this visit as anunwarranted intrusion on their domain, as theywould certainly resent the approach of almost anyother bird, they welcome it with notes and signs ofpleasure. Advancing to the visitor, they placethemselves behind it; then all three, keeping step,begin a rapid march, uttering resonant drummingnotes in time with their movements ; the notes of thepair behind being emitted in a stream, like a drum-roll, while the leader utters loud single notes atregular intervals. The march ceases; the leaderelevates his wings and stands erect and motionless,still uttering loud notes ; while the other two, with 270 The Naturalist in La Plata. puffed-out plumage and standing exactly abreast,stoop forward and downward until the tips of theirbeaks touch the ground, and, sinking their rhyth-mical voices to a murmur, remain for some time inthis posture. The performance is then over andthe visitor goes back to his own ground and mate,to receive a visitor himself later Dance of Spur-winged Lapwings. In the Passerine order, not the least remarkabledisplays are witnessed in birds that are notaccounted songsters, as they do not possess thehighly developed vocal organ confined to the sub-order Oscines. The tyrant-birds, which representin South America the fly-catchers of the Old World,all have displays of some kind; in a vast majorityof cases these are simply joyous, excited duets Music and Dancing in Nature. 271 between male and female, composed of impetuous andmore or less confused notes and screams, accom-panied with beating of wings and other some species choruses take the place of duets,while in others entirely different forms of displayhave been developed. In one group—Onipolegus—the male indulges in solitary antics, while the silent,modest-coloured female keeps in hiding. Thus, themale of Onipolegus Hudsoni, an intensely black-plumaged species with a concealed white wing-band,takes his stand on a dead
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1922
