114 
WANDERINGS IN 
SECOND 
JOURNEY 
Its 
haunts. 
a bluish cast in the wings and tail; his crown, 
: which he erects at pleasure, consists of black in the 
centre, surrounded with lovely blue of two different 
shades : he has a triangular black spot, edged with 
blue, behind the eye extending to the ear j and on 
his breast a sable tuft, consisting of nine feathers 
edged also with blue. This bird seems to suppose 
that its beauty can be increased by trimming the 
tail, which undergoes the same operation as our 
hair in a barber’s shop, only with this difference, 
that it uses its own beak, which is serrated, in lieu 
of a pair of scissars : as soon as his tail is full 
grown, he begins about an inch from the extremity 
of the two longest feathers in it, and cuts away the 
web on both sides of the shaft, making a gap about 
an inch long : both male and female Adonise their 
tails in this manner, which gives them a remarkable 
appearance amongst all other birds. While we 
consider the tail of the houtou blemished and de¬ 
fective, were he to come amongst us, he would 
probably consider our heads, cropped and bald, in 
no better light. He who wishes to observe this 
handsome bird in his native haunts, must be in the 
forest at the morning’s dawn. The houtou shuns 
the society of man: the plantations and cultivated 
parts are too much disturbed to engage it to settle 
there; the thick and gloomy forests are the places 
preferred by the solitary houtou. In those far- 
extending wilds, about day-break, you hear him 
articulate, in a distinct and mournful tone, u houtou, 
houtou.” Move cautiously on to where the sound 
