30 Handbook of Nature-Study 



FEATHERS AS ORNAMENT 

 Teacher's Story 



HE ornamental plumage of birds is one of the 

 principal illustrations of a great principle of evo- 

 lution. The theory is that the male birds win 

 their mates because of their beauty, those that 

 are not beautiful being doomed to live single 

 and leave no progeny to inherit their dullness. 

 On the other hand, the successful wooer hands 

 down his beauty to his sons. However, another 

 quite different principle acts upon the coloring 

 of the plumage of the mother birds; for if they should develop 

 bright colors themselves, they would attract the eyes of the enemy 

 to their precious hidden nests; only by being inconspicuous, are 

 they able to protect their eggs and nestlings from discovery and 

 death. The mother partridge, for instance, is so nearly the color of the 

 dead leaves on the ground about her, that we may almost step upon her 

 before we discover her; if she were the color of the oriole or tanager she 

 would very soon be the center of attraction to every prowler. Thus, it 

 has come about that among the birds the feminine love of beauty has 

 developed the gorgeous colors of the males, while the need for protection 

 of the home has kept the female plumage modest and unnoticeable. 



The curved feathers of the rooster's tail are weak and mobile and 

 could not possibly be of any use as a rudder; but they give grace and 

 beauty to the fowl and cover the useful rudder feathers underneath by a 

 feather fountain of iridescence. The neck plumage of the cock is also 

 often luxurious and beautiful in color and quite different from that of the 

 hen. Among the ducks the brilliant blue-green iridescent head of the 

 drake and his wing bars are beautiful, and make his wife seem Quaker-like 

 in contrast. 



As an object lesson to instil the idea that the male bird is proud of his 

 beautiful feathers, I know of none better than that presented by the 

 turkey gobbler, for he is a living expression of self-conscious vanity. He 

 spreads his tail to the fullest extent and shifts it this way and that to show 

 the exquisite play of colors over the feathers in the sunlight, meanwhile 

 throwing out his chest to call particular attention to his blue and red 

 wattles; and to keep from bursting with pride he bubbles over in vain- 

 glorious "gobbles." 



The hen with her chicks and the turkey hen with her brood, if they 

 follow their own natures, must wander in the fields for food. If they 

 were bright in color, the hawks would soon detect them and their chances 

 of escape would be small ; this is another instance of the advantage to the 

 young of adopting the colors of the mother rather than of the father; a 

 fact equally true of the song birds in cases where the males are brilliant in 

 color at maturity. The Baltimore oriole does not assist his mate in 

 brooding, but he sits somewhere on the home tree and cheers her by his 

 glorious song and by glimpses of his gleaming orange coat. Some have 

 accused him of being lazy; on the contrary, he is a wise householder for, 

 instead of attracting the attention of crow or squirrel to his nest, he dis- 

 tracts their attention from it by both color and song. 



A peacock's feather should really be a lesson by itself, it is so much a 

 thing of beauty. The brilliant color of the purple eye-spot, and the grace- 



