BIRDS. 423 



was altogether stopped. The female has "a some- 

 what similar, though smaller naked space of skin 

 on the neck ; but this is not capable of inflation."* 

 The male of another kind of grouse ( Tetrao urnpltaxianu*), 

 while courting the female, has his " bare yellow oesophagus 

 inflated to a prodigious size, fully half as large as the body;" 

 and he then utters various grating, deep, hollow tones. 

 With his neck-feathers erect, his wings lowered, and buzz- 

 ing on the ground, and his long pointed tail spread out 

 like a fan, he displays a variety of grotesque attitudes. The 

 oesophagus of the female is not in any way remarkable. f 



It seems now well made out that the great throat-pouch 

 of the European male bustard (Otis tarda), and of at least 

 four other species, does not, as was formerly supposed, serve 

 to hold water, but is connected with the utterance during 

 the breeding-season of a peculiar sound resembling " oak."J 

 A crow-like bird inhabiting South America, Cep/ialop ferns 

 ornatiis (fig. 40), is called the umbrella-bird from its im- 

 mense top-knot, formed of bare white quills surmounted by 

 dark -blue plumes, which it can elevate into a great dome 

 no less than five inches in diameter, covering the whole 

 head. This bird has on its neck a long, thin, cylindrical, 

 fleshy appendage, which is thickly clothed with scale-like 

 blue feathers. It probably serves in part as an ornament, 

 but likewise as a resounding apparatus; for Mr. Bates found 

 that it is connected "with an unusual development of the 

 trachea and vocal organs." It is dilated when the bird 

 utters its singularly deep, loud and long-sustained fluty 



* "The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada," by Maj. W. Ross 

 King, 1866, pp. 144-146. Mr. T. W. Wood gives in the " Student" 

 ^April, 1870, p. 116) an excellent account of the attitude and habits 

 of this bird during its courtship. He states that the erir-tui'ts or 

 neck-plumes are erected so that they meet over the crown of the 

 head. See his drawing, fig. 39. 



| Richardson, "Fauna Bor. American: Birds," 1831, p. 359, Audu- 

 bon, ibid, vol. iv, p. 507. 



\ The following papers have been lately written on this subject: 

 Prof. A. Newton in the " Ibis," 1862, p. 107; Dr. Cullen, ibid, 1865, 

 p. 145; Mr. Flower in "Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1865, p. 747; and Dr. 

 Marie in "Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1868, p. 471. In this latter paper an 

 excellent figure is given of the male Australian bustard in full dis- 

 play with the sack distended. It is a singular fact that the sack is 

 cot developed in all the males of the same species. 



