BIRD ORNAMENTS AND TOURNAMENTS. 53 



production to a very singular and extraordinary 

 degree. 



British birds, with one or two exceptions, are 

 not remarkable for any great brilliancy of plumage ; 

 it is among the feathered tribes of tropical regions 

 that colour attains its greatest variety and splen- 

 dour. The reason for this is probably because 

 gay birds would be exposed to enemies during 

 a northern winter, when most of the vegetation 

 is denuded of foliage ; in the tropics, most of the 

 trees and shrubs are evergreen and very dense 

 in character, thus affording concealment to gaily- 

 attired birds, which, in the great majority of 

 instances, love to hide their brilliant dress in the 

 deepest solitudes. Nevertheless, we have ample 

 material to illustrate some of the uses of colour 

 in the birds of our own woods and fields. This 

 brilliancy of colour is almost universally confined 

 to the cock birds ; it obtains to greatest splendour 

 on the dermal covering of the adult males, and 

 serves as an attraction to the much more soberly- 

 arrayed females. As the pairing season of the 

 various species approaches, the male birds' 

 plumage reaches its greatest brilliancy of colour ; 

 plumes and feather appendages are assumed ; 

 bare patches of skin, combs, and wattles deepen 

 in hue. The males of the Pheasant and the Red 

 Grouse exhibit this latter peculiarity, their combs 

 and ear wattles assuming a much more brilliant 

 scarlet in the pairing season. Cormorants, at the 

 same period of the year, don the filmy neck 



