bat THE SERVICE OF TAILS 63 
that of the thrasher is long and drooping. The 
brilliant sun-birds and gaudy parrots content them- 
selves with short rectrices, while the no less orna- 
mented humming-birds and trogons of our tropical 
woods trail behind them plumes of vivid color, often 
three times as long as the body. 
Sometimes the tail carries out the general con- 
tour of the body, and its origin is scarcely dis- 
cernible, externally, as among snakes and most 
fishes; again, it is an almost naked appendage, as 
among the rats; while a third class can be made 
of tails plentifully furnished, and, as a rule, highly 
adorned, with hair or feathers, such as those of 
the horse, the squirrels, the ant-eater, the fox, the 
malodorous skunk, and the gorgeous peacock,! 
pheasants and birds-of-paradise. 
But a more interesting line of inquiry is to trace 
the manifold ways in which wild animals turn their 
tails to practical account. These appendages are 
as a fifth limb to a great number of creatures who 
would be sadly deficient without them. They serve 
their various owners as shelters; as garments; as 
receptacles, carriers, and tools; as respirators; as 
badges for friend or foe; as weapons, both for 
offence and defence; as anchors, supports and 
aids to locomotion on land as well as under the 
water and through the air; as musical instruments 
(for example, by the rattlesnake), or as a means 
1In this bird, however, the resplendent train really consists of 
tail-coverts and not of the vectrices, or true tail-feathers. 
