Oct. 2, 1879] 



NATURE 



537 



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anxious to get together all the curious and striking forms 

 hecould, and his collections of Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, 

 and Hemiptera were probably among the most extensive 

 known. 



Throughout his life he made copious notes and 

 drawings of any natural curiosities that came under his 

 notice, and kept a regular record of the rainfall and 

 other meteorological occurrences. The care of all his 

 collections, &c., occupied so much of his time that he had 

 little left to devote to literary work, but he always allowed 

 free access to the collections to any who were working 

 and might benefit from them. At Reigate he started the 

 Reigate Natural History Club, of which he was president 

 for many years, and which still flourishes. 



He left Reigate on account of business difficulties in 

 1873, and his collections were sold and dispersed. He 

 then went to Worthing, where he resided till his death, 

 having again surrounded himself with all the interesting 

 plants, insects, &c., that he could get together. 



TAILS'^ 

 II. 

 A NOTHER animal, the tail of which is remarkable for 

 -^*- its mass of hairy covering, is the great ant-eater. 

 But much more renowned is the yak, the tail of which 

 animal is carried before dignitaries in Central Asia as an 

 ensign of honour. 



Such, then, are some of the main peculiarities of the 

 tail in beasts. It is generally long, but may be absent 

 altogether. It is generally hairy, sometimes very hairy, 

 but it may be naked. It attains a prodigious size in 

 exclusively aquatic forms, and in less aquatic forms — like 

 the otter — it is largely developed, and somewhat flattened 

 laterally, to aid the body in swimming. 



Let us now consider the tail of a bird, and contrast it 

 with that of a beast. 



Every one knows that many birds are spoken of as 

 having long tails, and so they have, in a sense. But a 

 glance at the skeleton shows that it is not in the same 

 sense that a bird and a beast are said to be "long-tailed." 

 The bones of a bird's tail are few in number, and short, 

 so that the tail is always very short as regards its bony 

 portion, and also as regards the muscle and skin which 

 covers it. At its end is a more or less conical or " plough- 

 share-shaped " bone, made of several vertebrar, which 

 have coalesced together. Into the skin, which invests 

 this short tail, are set the more or less long tail feathers, 

 which form what we ordinarily call "the tail" of a bird. 

 On the upper surface of the fleshy tail birds also carry a 

 sort of natural pomatum-pot. It is a grease-secreting 

 gland, especially developed in water-birds, which may 

 constantly be observed rubbing their bills first upon this 

 region and afterwards over the feathers of their body, in 

 order to give them a coating of this natural unguent. It 

 is the presence of a good supply of this coating which 

 renders the feathers of aquatic birds so impervious to 

 water as to cause it to be thrown off with a readiness which 

 has given rise to the familiar saying "like water off a 

 duck' s back." 



AH birds without exception which now live, have but a 

 short tail— in the true sense of the word— however long 

 may be the Jeathcrs which clothe that tail. But it was 

 not always so. A very ancient fossil bird has been (a few 

 years ago) discovered in the Solenhofen slate of Germany. 

 This fossil proves that in the secondary period, birds 

 existed quite like our present birds in general appearance, 

 and in the main details of their structure, but with a tail 

 formed of a number of vertebra; of considerable length, 

 like the tail-vertebrx of a long-tailed beast or (as we 

 shall see) lizard. On each side of this tail were set 

 feathers, so that altogether the structure was like nothing 

 which is to be seen in the world about us to-day. 



' A Davis lecture recently delivered at the Zoological Gardens by Prof. 

 St. George Mivart, K.R.S., V.P.Z.S. Continued from p. 512. 



This bird was the renowned Archeopteryx. 



Fig. 5.— The Archeopteryj: (of the Oolite strata). 



But apart from such old-world wonders as this, what we 

 calla bird's "tail"— meaning thereby the longfeathers of 

 the hinder part of its body— does not always denote really 

 the same part. 



The true "tail" of a bird (in this sense) means the 

 collection of more or less strong and more or less 

 elongated feathers which are implanted into the skin in- 

 vesting its short bony tail. 



Of this nature is the tail of an eagle, of an ostrich, and 

 the longest of all such tails — the enormous tail of the 

 beautiful Reeve's pheasant. You will naturally wonder 

 why I do not include that most wonderful and magnificent 

 object, the " tail " of a peacock. I do not include it for the 

 simple reason that this so-called "tail " is not a tail. Not 

 a "tail" in the sense of a beast's tail, or that of the 

 archeopteryx ; not a " tail " in the sense of an] ordinary 

 bird's tail, i.e., it is not made of feathers implanted into 

 the short fleshy tail. 



The feathers of birds are classed by ornithologists in 

 different groups according to their position on the body, 

 and to each such group is given its own special name. 

 Thus the long feathers implanted into the side of the arm 

 and hand (by which long feathers birds fly) are called 

 naturally " wing-feathers," but there are other feathers 

 implanted in the body at the root of the arm, and which 

 so lie that they cover over and protect the roots of the 

 wing-feathers. These root, or covering, feathers, which 

 are comparatively short feathers, are called wing-coverts. 

 Just in the same way, there are ordinarily short feathers 

 implanted in the hinder part of the body, which short 

 feathers cover and protect the roots of the tail feathers. 

 They are therefore called tail-coverts. 



Now the magnificent plumes of the peacock are not 

 tail feathers, they are tail coverts, enormously enlarged 

 and greatly exceeding in size the true tail feathers. 



You may have observed a peacock setting up its so- 

 called tail ; if not, take the next opportunity of observing 

 it. You will see that these very long and delicate plumes 

 are lifted up and sustained by means of certain short and 

 stiff feathers, and if you get behind the animal, you will 

 see these latter feathers, which can be erected and so prop 

 up and support the great mass of long, radiating taif- 

 coverts. These short, rigid feathers are the true tail 

 feathers, and thus in truth the peacock has a short tail, 

 not only as regards the skeleton, but also as regards the 

 true tail-feathers, in spite of the length of that magnificent 

 appendage which usage will force us still to call the pea- 

 cock's " tail," even after we have made acquaintance with 

 its real nature. Indeed it would be a piece of pedantry 

 to call it anything else ; but yet we may bear in mind, 

 when we do call it tail, that we do not here denote by that 

 word the same structure as we denote when wc speak of 

 the "tail" of ordinary birds. 



This condition is not peculiar to the peacock, though 

 it is the most striking instance of it. In such kinds as 

 the grouse the tail is in large part formed by tail-coverts. 



