BIRDS, 423 



Was altogether stopped. The female has "a some- 

 what similar, though smaller naked space of skin 

 on the neck ; but this is not capable of inflation."* 

 The male of another kind of grouse ( Tetrao urophasianus), 

 while courting the female, has his " bare yellow oesophagus 

 inflated to a prodigious size, fully half as large as the body;" 

 and he then utters various grating, deep, hollow tones. 

 With his neck-feathers erect, his wings lowered, and buzz- 

 ing on the ground, and his long pointed tail spread out 

 like a fan, he displays a variety of grotesque attitudes. Tlie 

 oesophagus of the female is not in any way remarkable. f 



It seems now well made out that the great throat-pouch 

 of the European male bustard {Otis tarda), and of at least 

 four other species, does not, as was formerly supposed, serve 

 to hold water, but is connected with the utterance during 

 the breeding-season of a peculiar sound resembling '^ oak."| 

 A crow-like bird inhabiting South America, Cephalopteriis 

 ornatus (fig. 40), is called the umbrella-bird from its im- 

 mense top-knot, formed of bare white quills surmounted by 

 dark-blue plumes, which it can elevate into a great dome 

 no less than five inches in diameter, covering the whole 

 head. This bird has on its neck a long, thin, cylindrical, 

 fleshy appendage, which is thickly clothed with scale-like 

 blue feathers. It probably serves in part as an ornament, 

 but likewise as a resounding apparatus; for Mr. Bates found 

 that it is connected ^* with an unusual development of the 

 trachea and vocal organs." It is dilated when the bird 

 utters its singularly deep, loud and long-sustained fluty 



*"The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada," by Ma j. W. Ross 

 King, 1866, pp. 144-146. Mr. T. W. Wood gives in the " Student" 

 (April, 1870, p. 116) an excellent account of tlie attitude and babits 

 of tbis bird during its courtsbip. He states tbat tbe ear-tufts or 

 neck-plumes are erected so tbat tbey meet over tbe crown of tbe 

 bead. See bis drawing, fig. 39. 



f Ricbardson, '* Fauna Bor. American: Birds," 1831, p. 359, Audu- 

 bon, ibid, vol. iv, p. 507. 



X Tbe following papers bave been lately written on tbis subject: 

 Prof. A. Newton in tbe " Ibis," 1862, p. 107; Dr. Cullen, ibid, 1865, 

 p. 145; Mr. Flower in "Proc. Zool. Soc," 1865, p. 747; and Dr. 

 Murie in "Proc. Zool. Soc," 1868, p. 471. In tbis latter paper an 

 excellent figure is given of tbe male Australian bustard in full dis- 

 play witb tbe sack distended. It is a singular fact tbat tbe sack is 

 not developed in all tbe males of tbe same species. 



