Tails 419 
Long-tailed Fowl—a breed of birds in which, by artificial 
stimulation, such perhaps as periodical pulling of the 
feathers or else retardation of moult, has produced, in the 
cocks, tails from twelve to twenty feet in length. This 
process dates back, in Corea at least, to a.p. 1000, and 
necessitates keeping the birds continually upon high 
perches, or else wrapping the 
feathers carefully in paper. 
The arrangement of feathers 
in this artificially induced 
character is duplicated in 
nature in the Paradise Why- 
dah-finch mentioned above. 
In both the male and fe- 
male Peacock Pheasant the 
tail is quite long and the 
feathers are decorated with 
beautiful iridescent ‘“ eyes.” 
But in this bird usefulness ex- 
ists as a corollary of beauty. 
When the young chicks are 
reared under a bantam hen, 
they invariably keep close be- Fie. 335.—Useful tail of Peacock 
hind their foster-mother, for eure 
no apparent reason; indeed this position often results in 
their death, a kick from the bird’s foot generally being 
fatal. The reason for this strange instinctive act is at 
once clear when we see the chicks with their rightful 
mother. They spend much of their time hidden beneath 
the shelter of her long, sloping tail, coming out now 
