Chap. XIII. 
DECOKATION. 
79 
I will mention only one other bird, remarkable from 
the extreme contrast in colour between the sexes, 
namely the famous Bell-bird {Gliasmorhynchus niveus) of 
S. America, the note of which can be distinguished at 
the distance of nearly three miles, and astonishes every 
one who first hears it. The male is pure white, whilst 
the female is dusky-green ; and the former colour with 
terrestrial species of moderate size and inoffensive 
habits is very rare. The male, also, as described by 
Waterton, has a spiral tube, nearly three inches in 
length, which rises from the base of the beak. It is jet- 
black, dotted over with minute downy feathers. This 
tube can be inflated with air, through a communication 
with the palate ; and when not inflated hangs down on 
one side. The genus consists of four species, the males- 
of which are very distinct, whilst the females, as de- 
scribed by Mr. Sclater in a most interesting paper,, 
closely resemble each other, thus offering an excellent 
instance of the common rule that within the same 
group the males differ much more from each other than 
do the females. In a second species {G. nudicoUis) the 
male is likewise snow-white, with the exception of a 
large space of naked skin on the throat and round the 
eyes, which during the breeding-season is of a fine green 
colour. In a third species ((7. tricarunculatus) the head 
and neck alone of the male are white, the rest of the 
body being chesnut-brown, and the male of this species 
is provided with three filamentous projections half as 
long as the body — one rising from the base of the beak 
and the two others from the corners of the mouth.'^® 
The coloured plumage and certain other ornaments of 
Mr. Sclater, ‘Intellectual Observer,’ Jan. 1867. ‘ Waterton’s 
Wanderings,’ p. 118. See also Mr. Salvin’s interesting paper, with a 
plate, in the ‘ Ibis,’ 1865, p. 90. 
