Chap. XIII. BIRDS. 31i 



*• even in tlie breeding-season, shot a female wliicli had 

 " any smell of musk." So powerful is this odour during 

 the pairing-season, that it can be detected long before 

 the bird can be seen.^ On the whole, birds appear to 

 be the most aesthetic of all animals, excepting of course 

 man, and they have nearly tlie same taste for the beau- 

 tiful as we have. This is shewn by our enjoyment of 

 the singing of birds, and by our women, both civilised 

 and savage, decking their heads with borrowed plumes, 

 and using gems which are hardly more brilliantly 

 coloured than the naked skin and wattles of certain 

 birds. 



Before treating of the characters with which we are 

 here more particularly concerned, I may just allude to 

 certain differences between the sexes which apparently 

 depend on differences in their habits of life ; for such 

 cases, though common in the lower, are rare in the 

 higher classes. Two humming-birds belonging to the 

 genus Eustephanus, which inhabit the island of Juan 

 Fernandez, were long thought to be specifically distinct, 

 but are now known, as Mr. Gould informs me, to be the 

 sexes of the same species, and they differ slightly in the 

 jbrm of the beak. In another genus of humming-birds 

 (Gryjnis), the beak of the male is serrated along the 

 margin and hooked at the extremity, thus differing 

 much irom that of the female. In the curious Neomor- 

 pha of New Zealand, there is a still wider difference in 

 the form of the beak ; and Mr. Gould has been informed 

 that the male with his '' straight and stout beak " tears 

 off the bark of trees, in order that the female may 

 feed on the uncovered larvjB Avith her weaker and more 

 curved beak. Somethino; of the same kind mav be 

 observed with our goldfinch (Cardiielis elegans), for I 



2 Gould, ' Handbook to the Birds of Australia/ 18G5, vo]. ii. p. 383. 



