HAIRY-BREASTED POGONIAS. 173 
tail ; a small, round, sulphur-coloured dot is on the 
tip of each feather of the nape, back, and lesser 
wing-covers, and the quills are pale brown margined 
with sulphur. The under plumage from the throat 
is likewise of a sulphur colour, but slightly tinged 
with greenish, and thickly covered with blackish 
spots. 
The most extraordinary peculiarity of this bird 
is seen in the structure of the breast-feathers ; they 
are much more rigid than the others, and pointed, 
while the shafts of the lower ones are elongated into 
fine, incurved, setaceous hairs or bristles, many of 
which are an inch long. It is impossible to con- 
jecture the use of this particular structure, since 
it is without any precise parallel that we know of 
in the feathered creation ; there is indeed some- 
thing similar to it in the Cen trocercus urophasianus , 
Swains., or Great Cock of the plains ; hut the long 
setaceous hairs of that bird are only on each side of 
the breast, and are those which more particularly 
cover the naked protuberances which are inflated 
by the male bird during the season of courtship. 
