6710 



Birds. 



the iris is yellow, but can be coloured by the corpuscules of the blood, 

 which, by some muscular effort, voluntary or involuntary, of the bird, 

 can be withdrawn, when the blood circulates as usual colourless. The 

 next evening I returned to the pasture for the purpose of watching 

 them only. It was about sunset, and there were at first no birds 

 visible ; but, after watching a little, one here and there appeared at a 

 considerable height from the tall forest that covered the steep hills 

 around. The ring-tail, even at a great distance, is easily distinguished 

 from our other Columbadae by the slow strokes of its wings, its heavy 

 flight and the disproportionate length of the tail ; they have, too, a 

 habit of setting off in a wide circle, pausing as if they had not made 

 up their minds where to go, and then returning to the perch they had 

 left. My firing at them the preceding evening had probably alarmed 

 them, and these might be reconnoitring excursions. At length a pair 

 perched on the topmost twigs of the clammy cherry, so that 1 had 

 them en silhouette against the glow of the evening sky. After eyeing 

 me suspiciously a little (for there was no shelter near for concealment) 

 they descended to the lower branches, and 1 then remarked that the 

 ring of the expanded tail is much more obvious than I should have 

 supposed from the dead bird. They reminded me oddly of our green 

 parrots, in the heavy business-like way they almost tumbled in among 

 the twigs, and at once began to pluck and rapidly swallow the large 

 berries, quite regardless that the twigs behind raised the tail straight 

 up, or the leaves prevented a wing from closing; but they soon took 

 other positions, and the object of the large tail, the strong feathers of 

 which it is composed, and the vigorous muscles which move it, seemed 

 very apparent in its constant requisition as a balancer, — continually in 

 violent action as the heavy bird stretched and tugged at the ripest 

 berries, the twigs swaying and shaking with its weight and exertions. 

 It is remarkable that in our large Cuculidae, birds which also obtain 

 their food by leaps, in positions when often the wings cannot be ex- 

 panded, the same contrivance is resorted to. They jumped from twig 

 to twig, as the berries were finished, with a good deal of commotion. 

 A sidling movement along a branch was a very common manoeuvre for 

 changing the bunches above, not foot over foot, like a parrot, but 

 moving one foot sideways and then the other up to it, and very 

 quickly. I approached nearer, and just as 1 stopped I observed the 

 female bird, on a thicker twig, try to reach a tempting bunch below; 

 she stretched but could not reach it, sidled a little further out, but it 

 was still beyond her; she then turned completely over, so that she 

 clung to the twig back downwards. A half turn of the neck brought 



