Chap. XIII. 
BIRDS. 
39 
even in the breeding-season, shot a female which had 
“ any smell of musk.” So powerful is this odour during 
the pairing-season, that it can be detected long bcfoie 
the bird can be seen . 2 On the whole, birds appear to 
he the most msthetic of all animals, excepting ot course 
lna, i, and they have nearly the same taste for the beau- 
tif ul as we have. This is shewn by our enjoyment of 
the singing of birds, and by our women, both civilised 
a ud savage, decking their heads with borrowed plumes, 
an d using gems which are hardly more brilliantly 
coloured than the naked skin and wattles of certain 
birds. 
Before treating of the characters with which we are 
here more particularly concerned, I may just allude to 
Certain differences between the sexes which apparently 
depend on differences in their habits of life ; for such 
cases, though common in the lower, are rare in the 
higher classes. Two humming-birds belonging to the 
S e nus Eustephanus, which inhabit the island ot .luan 
Fernandez, were long thought to be specifically distinct, 
but are now known, as Mr. Gould informs me, to be the 
® e Xes of the same species, and they differ slightly in the 
form of the beak. In another genus of humming-birds 
(Grypus), the beak of the male is serrated along the 
margin and hooked at the extremity, thus differing 
m, >ch from that of the female. In the curious Neomor- 
Pha of Hew Zealand, there is a still wider difference in 
l be form of the beak ; and Mr. Gould has been informed 
fbat the male with his “ straight and stout beak tears 
the bark of trees, in order that the female may 
on the uncovered larvce with licr weaker and moie 
curved beak. Something of the same kind may be 
observed with our goldfinch (Cardueli s elerjans), tor I 
2 Gould, < Handbook to the Birds of Australia,’ 1865, vol. ii. p. 383. 
