B I K D. 



405 



breeding season. Birds which are subject to addi- 

 tional plumage, or even to rich additional colours in 

 their feathers, during the breeding season, are gene- 

 rally, if not invariably, birds of warm temperament, 

 and excited to contests of gallantry with each other, 

 and other displays of more than ordinary courage, at 

 that season. The affection appears to be one oi 

 the whole body, though the effects which it produces 

 are differently localised in different species. Some- 

 times the additional feathers are on the neck, some- 

 times in the crest, sometimes in the scapulars and 

 feathers of the back, arid very generally in the tail. 



The use of these feathers in the economy of the 

 birds is not known ; unless it be that the production 

 of them (for feathers appear to be one of the most 

 elaborate of nature's productions), exhausts the sur- 

 plus of that energy which, from its very violence, 

 might otherwise be injurious to them at those times 

 when they do not require to exert it immediately for 

 those purposes which, physiologically considered, it 

 is intended to answer. 



This is an exceedingly curious part of nature ; but 

 it is as obscure as it is curious. In all the living and 

 growing races, there is a bloom or evolution of 

 richer and more intense colour than that which 

 accompanies ordinary growth, attendant npon the 

 process of production. This is less conspicuous in 

 the animal kingdom than in the vegetable ; and in 

 both, those species in which the process is otherwise 

 secret or obscure, partake little or nothing in this 

 rich display ; but it is to the nuptial dresses ,,|' 

 plants and of birds that the gay season of the year 

 owes the most of its beauty , and nature, true to her 

 general law, lavishes the richest of her ornaments 

 upon the most essential of her operations upon that 

 operation by which alone she maintains all the races 

 of her children, and triumphs over time itself. 



As the uses of those supplemental feathers, whether 

 seasonal or permanent, ure not. known, they cannot 

 be used for any purpose more general than that of 

 being specific or trivial characters of the races in 

 which they appear. We must therefore refer the 

 further consideration of them to the particular articles 

 descriptive of these. 



III. SKELETON OF BIRDS. 



As it is not the province <>f natural history, espe- 

 cially of that popular form of it to which this work is 

 restricted, to enter into the details of anatomy, any 

 farther than is necessary to obtain a general notion of 

 the way in which the motions of animals are per- 

 formed, the present section will be very short. We 

 have already alluded to some of those peculiarities 

 in the bones of birds, which enable them to perform 

 their chief aerial motions; and our main object in 

 again reverting to this part of the subject is to place 

 before the reader a sketch of the b< -i.es of what may 

 be considered as the model or utmost perfection of a 

 bird, before proceeding to point out how the classifica- 

 tion of birds is founded upon one or more of their 

 three grand actions, as these are dependent upon, or 

 arise out of their varied organisations. 



This sketch represents the bones of the Jer Falcon 

 (Fulco Icelandic im ; Hierofalco, of Cuvier), which is 

 the boldest, the most perfectly winged, and, in pro- 

 portion to its weight, the strongest both for action and 

 endurance of all the feathered tribes. Dwelling in 

 the \\ilds of nature, subjected to violent winds, to 

 heavy snows, and to long-continued rains, and com- 

 pelled often to endure long periods of abstinence in 



those parts of the world where there is not a tree, 

 and hardly even a bush, for the shelter of a bird, and 

 requiring at other times to range for several hundred 

 miles before it can procure a meal, either for itself or 

 for its young; the jer falcon, estimating according to 

 the average powers and experiences of animals, may 

 be said to have the hardest lot in the whole king- 

 dom. But even upon this, the grand extreme, as it 

 were, of his works, the Creator has not left himself 

 without a witness ; for if the task which the jer falcon 

 is called upon to perform in nature is harder than that 

 of most other birds, the preparation of this falcon 

 for the performance of it is greater in fully the same 

 proportion. 



Jer Falcon. 



The sketch which we have given of this bird, 

 which is, now at least that falconry is not the fashion, 

 rather rare in substance, in skin, or in skeleton, is 

 taken from a very fine specimen in the possession of 

 Mr. Yarrell, which that gentleman very obligingly 

 lent us for the purpose. It was originally obtained 

 from Iceland ; and we believe in part at least 

 cleaned and prepared by marine insects on the Ice- 

 land shores ; and these creatures are far from the 

 worst preparers of the skeletons of larger animals, 

 when the object is to have them perfectly clean and 

 at the same time quite entire. 



It is impossible to do justice to so complete a 

 piece of natural mechanism in a sketch, and it would 

 be no easy task even for the most elaborate engrav- 

 ing ; but the general arrangement of the bones, and 

 their remarkable compactness and adaptation to the 

 powerful actions of tin; wings, the feet and the bill, 

 can be easily seen. Of these motions and their 

 organs, as diversified in different tribes, we shall have 

 occasion to speak afterwards ; but we may here notice 

 that the jer falcon possesses all the three in the 

 highest perfection ; and that a?, although it is a day 



