104 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



from side to side. The spiral tips of the wires look like 

 small balls of burnished green metal, and the swaying 

 movement gives them the effect of being slowly tossed 

 from one side to the other, so that I have named this 

 part of the display the * Juggling.' The swaying of the 

 body seems to keep time with the song, and at intervals, 

 with a swallowing movement of his throat, the bird raises 

 and lowers his head. Then comes the finale, which lasts 

 only a few seconds. He suddenly turns right round 

 and shows his back, the white fluify feathers under the 

 tail bristling in his excitement ; he bends down on the 

 perch in the attitude of a fighting cock, his widely-opened 

 bill showing distinctly the extraordinary light apple-green 

 colour of the inside of the mouth, and sings the same 

 gurgling notes without once closing his bill, and with a 

 slow dying-away movement of his tail and body. A 

 single drawn-out note is then uttered, the tail and wiree 

 are lowered, and the dance and song are over. 



" The King-bird has another form of display which he 

 very rarely exhibits, and only on three or four occasions 

 have I seen him go through this performance. Dropping 

 under the perch, the bird walks backwards and forwards 

 in an inverted position with his wings expanded. Sud- 

 denly he closes his wings and lets his body fall straight 

 downwards, looking exactly like a crimson pear, his blue 

 legs being stretched out to the full length and his feet 

 clinging to the perch. The effect is very curious and 

 weird, and the performance is so like that of an acrobat 

 suddenly dropping on to his toes on the cross-bar of a 

 trapeze that I have named this the * Acrobatic ' display. 

 It has been witnessed on different days to his * Juggling ' 

 display. While giving his * Acrobatic* performance he 

 sings the whole time, but never shows his side-plumes, 



