HAIRY-BREASTED POGONIAS. 



tail ; a small, round, sulphur-coloured dot is on the 

 tip of each feather of the nape, back, and lesser 

 wing-covers, and the quills are pale brown margined 

 with sulphur. The under plumage from the throat 

 is likewise of a sulphur colour, but slightly tinged 

 with greenish, and thickly covered with blackish 

 spots. 



The most extraordinary peculiarity of this bird 

 is seen in the structure of the breast-feathers ; they 

 are much more rigid than the others, and pointed, 

 while the shafts of the lower ones are elongated into 

 fine, incurved, setaceous hairs or bristles, many of 

 which are an inch long. It is impossible to con- 

 jecture the use of this particular structure, since 

 it is without any precise parallel that we know of 

 in the feathered creation ; there is indeed some- 

 thing similar to it in the Centrocercus urophosianus* 

 Swains., or Great Cock of the plains ; but the long 

 setaceous hairs of that bird are only on each side of 

 the breast, and are those which more particularly 

 cover the naked protuberances which are inflated 

 by the male bird during the season of courtship. 



