BIRDS. 451' 



they have been acquired at the expense of greatly impeded 

 powers of flight or of running. The African night-jar 

 (Cosmetornis), wliich during the pairing-season has one of 

 its primary wing-feathers developed into a streamer of very 

 great length, is thereby much retarded in its flight, 

 although at other times remarkable for its swiftness. The 

 ^'^ unwieldy size" of the secondary wing-feathers of the 

 male Argus pheasant is said ''^almost entirely to deprive 

 the bird of flight." The fine plumes of male birds of para- 

 dise trouble them during a high wind. The extremely long 

 tail-feathers of the male widow-birds (Vidua) of South- 

 ern Africa render '' their flight heavy;" but as soon as these 

 are cast off they fly as well as the females. As birds always 

 breed when food is abundant, the males probably do not 

 suffer much inconvenience in searching for food from their 

 impeded powers of movement; but there can hardly be a 

 doubt that they must be much more liable to be struck 

 down by birds of prey. Nor can we doubt that the long 

 train of the peacock and the long tail and wing feathers of 

 the Argus pheasant must render them an easier prey to any 

 prowling tiger-cat than would otherwise be the case. Even 

 the bright colors of many male birds cannot fail to make 

 them conspicuous to their enemies of all kinds. Hence, 

 as Mr. Gould has remarked, it probably is that such birds 

 are generally of a shy disposition, as if conscious that their 

 beauty was a source of danger, and are much more difficult 

 to discover or approach than the somber colored and com- 

 paratively tame females or than the young and as yet 

 unadorned males.* 



It is a more curious fact that the males of some birds 

 which are provided with special weapons for battle, and 

 which in a state of nature are so pugnacious that they 

 often kill each other, suffer from possessing certain orna- 

 ments. Cock-tighters trim the hackles and cut off the 

 combs and gills of their cocks; and the birds are then said 

 to be dubbed. An undubbed bird, as Mr. Tegetmeier 



*0n tlie Cosmetornis, see Livingstone's " Expedition to the Zam- 

 besi," 1865, p. 66. On the Argus plieasant, Jardine's " Nat. Hist. 

 Lib.: Birds," vol. xiv, p. 167. On birds of paradise, Lesson, quoted 

 by Brehm, " Thierleben," B. iii, s. 325. On the widow-bird, Bar- 

 row's "Travels in Africa," vol. i, p. 243, and "Ibis," vol. iii, 1861, 

 p. 133. Mr. Gould, on the shyness of male birds, "Hand-book to 

 Birds of Australia," vol. i, 1865, pp. 210, 457. 



