8 
worm fairly out of the ground, it throws up its head with a jerk, 
and swallow: it whole.” 
In many birds the covering of the bill near its base and close to: 
the forehead is swollen, and forms various protuberances, horns, 
knots, and other apparently ornamental excrescences. I have 
already alluded to the hornbills. In the Coots the sheath is 
prolonged backwards over the forehead like a yellow plate or shield. 
Some of the swans have remarkable round knobs in nearly the 
same place. In the mute or domestic swan, the knob, which is. 
black, is much larger in the male than in the female. 
One of the Cotingas of South America, the common Bell bird, is. 
thus described: ‘‘ He is about the size of the jay. His plumage is. 
white as snow. On his forehead rises a spiral tube nearly three 
inches long. It is jet black, dotted all over with small white. 
feathers. It has a communication with the palate, and when 
filled with air it looks like a spire; when empty, it becomes 
pendulous His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, 
and may be heard at the distance of three miles. You hear his 
toll, and then pause for a minute, then another toll, and then a 
pause again, and then a toll, and again a pause. Then he is 
silent for six or eight minutes, and then another toll, and so on.” 
Dr. Eastes concluded by reading ‘‘ The Chorus of the Birds,’” 
from Mr. Courthope’s Paradise of Birds :— 
We wish to declare 
How the birds of the air 
- All high institutions designed ; 
And, holding in awe 
Art. Science and Law, 
Delivered the same to mankind. 
To begin with, of old 
Man went naked and cold 
Whenever it pelted or froze, 
Till we showed him how feathers 
Were proof against weathers, 
With that, he bethought him of hose. 
And nextit was plain 
That he, in the rain, 
Was forced to sit dripping and blind, 
While the Reed Warbler swung 
In a nest with her young, 
Deep sheltered and warm from the wind. 
