WONDERS OF THE BIRD WORLD, BOWDLER SHARPE

Wonders of the Bird WorldWONDERFUL BIRDS :s*i'^^^ The Gold-crest {/\i!^ii/i... Wonders of the Bird WorldThus a problem of great interest is at once suggested, of which I speak more fully

OF THE

BY

R BOWDLER SHARPE, LL.D., F.L.S., etc

LATE ASSISTANT-KEEPER, SUB-DEPARTMENT OF VERTEBRATA, BRITISHMUSEUM

With Illustrations hy A T. Ekves

NEW YORK

443-449 FOURTH AVENUE

TOTHE MANY THOUSANDS OF

MY COUNTRYMEN

AND COUNTRYWOMEN

WHO HAVE HONOURED MY LECTURES

IN MEMORY OF THE MANY

HAPPY HOURS

SPENT IN

H

This little book contains the gist of my lectures on the

Kingdom during the last ten years I have often been

asked to publish my lectures, and had even commenced

a series of articles in ' Good Words' in 1895, under the

title of my best-known lecture,' Curiosities of Bird Life.'

Since that date, however, this title has been used for

another volume ; but I trust that even under the new name which I have adopted for this work, many of my

no longer undertake the strain of speaking in public, and

substance of the lectures which I was in the habit of

and I have tried to amphfy the lectures, which ofnecessity

I trust that there are many of myfriendswho will like

to have a memento of the evenings which were always asource of greatpleasure to me at the time, and I hope that

the lectures, now for the first time issued in book form,will

not be found to have lost their interest

R BOWDLER SlIARPE

Chiswick,

Oct 12, i8q8.

CONTENTS CHAPTER I

WONDERFUL lilRDS [continued)

The MegapodesorMound-builders—TheWhrile-headed Stork

Thedifference inthe colouring of the sexes—Evolution of Species

—Sun-birds—Birds of Paradise—Lyre-birds—Motmots

—

Puffins— Themethods by which Birds acquiretheirplumage 62

DECORATION IN BIRDS {continued)

Humming-birds—Differencein plumagebetweenmale andfemale

— The Racket-tailed Humming-bird—Bell-bird—

—

Huia 90

xii Contents

CHAPTER V

THE PLAYING-GROUNDS OF BIRDS

PAGE

The meeting-places of the Birds of Paradise—Thedrawing-room

oftheArgus Pheasant—Theassemblies of the Cocks ofthe

Rock—Bower-builders—Gardeners . ii?

CHAPTER \'lTHE NESTI^'G OF BIRDS

The OrdersandFamilies ofBirds, with their mode of nesting

RockWarblers—Purse-nest Builders—Weaver-birds—

—

Salvin's Swift—AssemblagesofAlbatrossesandTerns . 207

CHAPTER IX

THE COURTSHIP AND DANCING OF BIRDS

Superiority of the Female—Hemipodes—Painted Snipes—ropes—Dancing of the Black Grouse—The "Spel" of theCapercaihe—The"showing-off"of the Great Bustard—The

Phala-Bustard's pouch—The Ruff's display—The Crane's

per-formance—The Rookin love—ThedanceoftheJacana—The

"Bailador"in "song anddance" 220

Contents xiii

CHAPTER X

MIMICRY AND PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE IN

COLOUR OF BIRDS

Mimicry in insects—Curassowand Caracaia—Drongoand Black

Cuckoo—Oriolesand HelmetedHoney-eaters—Owl-Parrot

—

Thick-knees—Pennant-winged Nightjar—Argentine Little

Bittern—Ptarmigan andWillow-CJrouse 261

CHAPTER XI

The Koel and the Myna —The CommonCuckoo—Its INIigration

and winter home —The similarityof its eggstothose of thefoster-parent— Theejection of theyoung of the latter— The

Cow-birds parasitic on eachother—The nesting of the Ani

orSavanaCuckooofJamaica 295

CHAPTER XII

Scanty knowledge of the subject— Summary of obser\ations by

Mr W. Eagle Clarke—Giitke's obser\-ations in Heligoland

—Migration in the Mississippi Valley—Migration in the

CHAPTER XIII

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

TheCollecting ofSpecimens—ThesixZoo-geographical Regions

of the World—Regions and Sub-Regions—Provinces and

Sub-Provinces—Sclater's Scheme—Wallace'sAmendments

—

Allen's Scheme—Dr H O Forbesand the Lost Continent . 348

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

in charireofthenes

The Danceof the Cock-of-the-Rock

The Gold-crest

Restoration of the Archccopieryx.

HeadoftheA7-Lha:optcryx .

Restoration of the Tooth-billed Di\er

SuggestedrestorationofPhororachusinflatus, Amegh

TheFrigate Bird

SectionthroughthemoundofLipoaoce

MoundolLipoaocellata

Abird's-eyeviewofthemoundofLip^

TheSplendid Sun-bird

Headof themaleof Cinnyris liarilaubi

HeadofthemaleofC cya7tola:mus

Headof themaleofC 7-eichcnbacJii

HeadofC obscurus,maleandfemale

The Blue Bird of Paradise .

•llata

Frontispiece

tlings

in undisturbedseen from abov

state

I

44

5

79

1

'5 1720

21

232427343536VJ

41

45

51 57

6266676768

71

Ornaments ofthePuffin's bill •

ThePoise of a Humming-bird

TheRacket-tailed Humming-bird

Young Males ofthe Loiiiiigcsifi at play

The Great Crested Grebe

The Standard-\vinged Nightjar

Nestofthe QueenslandCat-bird

The Bowerof the Satin Bower-bird

Double-arched Bowerofthe Spotted Bo«er

Arbourof the Gardener Bower-bird

Arbourof the Gardener Bower-bird (Section"!

Arbourof the Gardener Bouer-bird (Ground Plan)

The Cuckooas aparasite

Nestof the Tailor-bird

Nestofa Crested Swift

Thedeath of theWood-Hoopoes

Nestof Tanysiptcra sylvia .

TheGuacharo,or Oil-bird

Nestof the Guacharo

Nestof the Flamingo

Nestsofthe Indian Fair\"-Martin

Nests of the Edible Swiftlets

8i

90

9295

101 105

109

"3

116 117 '-3

i::7

130 13^

^33143144146

161

16S70

175

17617779

IS31S719019319S200201

20.^1

XVI List of Illustrations

Weaver-birds'Nestsin Liberia

Nestofthe Fire-wood Gatherer . Nestof theYellow-throatedWarbler . Nestof a Penduline Tit

Nestof theCape PendulineTit, or Cotton-bird Nestofthe Rock-Warbler

Nestof the Fan-tailedWarbler . NestsofStelliila calliope

Loadednest of Oreotrochihispichincha The Courting of the male Red-necked Phalarope byth Indian Hemipodes

Femaleof the PaintedSnipe

The MaleBlackcock dancing

TheJVIale ofthe GreatBustard showingoff. The Courting of the Ruff

Bailadorsat play

FemaleofPapilioineropc

Femaleof^maurisniavitis

The BlackCuckoonear thenest of theDrongo . The BlackDrongo

TheOwl-Parrot

TheStone-Plo\'er, orThick-knee

ThePennant-winged Nightjar

TheArgentine Little Bittern

The Hoopoe

Little Bittern in reed-bed ,

Ptarmiganin summerplumage

Ptarmiganin autumnplumage

Ptarmiganin winterplumage

TheAniofJamaica

YoungKoelfedbyMynas

Young Cuckooejectingthe nestlings ofthe Meadow The Lighthouseon Heligoland . TheCommon Nightjar

Zoo-geographical Regionsof the Globe

TheGiant Gallinule ofNewZealand .

efemale.

Pipit ,

PACE

214

215 216

220

222

229

242 245

249 259

261 261 268 269 271

273 276

279 281 283 285 289 -93 295 299 307 323 333 348 371

Wonders of the Bird World

WONDERFUL BIRDS

:s*i'^^^

The Gold-crest {/\i!^ii/i<s rci^ii/ns).

TheMigrationof a Gold-crest—ExtinctForms—TheArchaeopteryx

—

ThePhororachus—TheSecretary Bird—The Seriama—Ratite or

Struthious Birds—Kiwis—Rheas—The Hoatzin

the most wonderful bird in the world? "

It is a difficult

question to answer, and I always shirk the reply, for in my

opinion every bird is wonderful, and the more we study

their habits, and try to understand their inmost lives, their

thoughts, their instincts, the more wonderful do birds

Natural History Museum in October 1897, bringing with

him a small bird in a cage It was a little Gold-crest

{Regulus regulus), which had flown into the topmost car of

2 Wonders of the Bird World

the Gigantic Wheel at the Earl's Court Exhibition on the

preceding night, about ID p.m I had never studied a

I had never seen such a wonderful little creature in my

life. As it hopped backwards and forwards in its cage, it

in any drawing of the species with which I am acquainted,

male sex, as most people imagine, the brilliant crown was

overshadowed by the raised feathers on the sides of the

expected it to be The Gold-crest is a common enough

bird in Great Britain, and I have often seen it in a wild

state, butcertainly I never realized what a beautiful little

examining it in captivity Then again arose the thought

city in the darkness— and the remembrance of this tiny

became acquainted with the phenomenonof bird-migration

in its fullest sense,when I spent a fortnighton that sea-girt

Mr Henry Seebohm,the autumn flightof manya migrant.Heligoland is an isolated rock standing out in the BalticSea, off the mouth of the Elbe,and in 1876 possessed buta

staircase which connects the upland with the shore In

this tree, during the daytime, settled many little weary

down each day to the shooting-ground on Sandy Island,

small boys of the island, who shot them with catapults

Extinct Forms 3

Truly wonderful little travellers, if only their migration to

Heligoland is considered; but we know that on the east

autumn in vast numbers, travelling across the North Sea to

considered a wonderful bird, and there are numbers of

economy.

aspect of the forerunners of the present race of birds

which we see around us to-day In no Class of animals is

the record so imperfect Fossil mammals and reptileshave been discovered in the beds of bygone ages, which

account of their lighter bodies,which may have been sweptaway by rivers or torrents, the fossil remains of birds arefew, and we know very little of the species which inhabited

the globe in ancient times The fossil birds as yet

dis-covered help us but little, for we find that where extinct

Penguins, Tinamous, etc.,have been discovered, it has been

present day The same may be said of the flightless

Emeus and Rheas, though we have evidence in the case ofthe Ostrich that its rangewas once more widely extended

than it is in our own era The discovery of a large extinct

finds its nearest ally in an extinct form in Mauritius,

a former land connection between portions of the earth at

present far distant and separated by seas of great depth

Wonders of the Bird World

Thus a problem of great interest is at once suggested, of

which I speak more fully in a subsequent chapter on the

'Geographical Distribution of Birds.'

Figure of the Arch^BOJ'tcyyx.

From a picture byW.P Pycraft.

Ai5>'

Certainly one of the most wonderful of birds must have

been the ArclicEopteryx, an archaic type of the Jurassic

^^_ age, and known only from the fossil

remains of two specimens discovered

forms of bird life, the Archccoptcryx,ox

teeth, and it had a very

reptilian-looking head That it was a real bird, however, is proved

by the impression of the feathers which are to be seen

KeadofArchi^optcryx.

^

The Phororachus

Suggested restoration oi Phororachus injiatjts, Amegh. Froma sketch byW.P Pycraft.

the illustration which has been drawn from the restoration

designed by my friend, Mr W. P Pycraft, and now in the

8 Wonders of the Bird World

Bird Gallery at the Natural History Museum, that the

Archctopteryx possessed a totally different kind of tail from

had a long lizard-like tail, consisting of some twentyvertebra;, to which were attached in pairs the rectrices, or

tail-feathers Itwas apparentlyof the size ofourCommon

Rook {Trypanocorax frngilegus) Another peculiarity ofthe ArchcEopteryxlies in the factthat the three fingers ofthe

wing corresponding to the three fingers ofexisting birds,

of reptiles In those few birds of the present day which have claws on the wing, never more than two are found,

viz,thegeneraHesperoriiisandIchthyoniis of ProfessorMarsh

tends to prove that Hesperomis was a kind of flightless

of our day More wonderful birds of the Eocene periodhavealso been discovered in Patagonia These are called

a restoration, viz. of the genus Plwrorachus, based upon

the remains discovered by Professor Ameghino, and now

in the Natural History Museum. It was in all probability

and one which has been variously placed by ornithologists

among the Hawks,or near the Bustards and Cranes In

The Secretary Bird 9

both amplycrested, theyhave long legs and a graduated

m^

The Secretary-Bird {Serpentaruis secretariw^').

tail, and the bill is Accipitrine and Hawk-like, more so in

lo Wonders of the Bird World

the Secretary Bird, which is, moreover, a thorough ground

Hawk in its ways It is an inhabitant of the more open

country in Africa, and is everywhere protected on account

of its supposed utility in killing snakes, and especially

spread out in front of it to act as a shield, and from under

power with its feet, and generally ends by crushing the

reptile in a very short time Any one who has seen a

Secretary Bird strike a dead rat and reduce it to a pulp in

a few seconds, can bear witness to the hammer-like force

withwhich the bird brings down itsfeet on itsvictim And

this is the more remarkable, because Mr Layard says thatthe young Secretaries have such brittle legs,that theysnap,

ifthe birds are startled into a run

Stalking through the grass, the great height of the

view of the surrounding country and it is thus able to

which ensues, the cobra will have but little chance, though

and has been known to die from thepoison of the snake,

should the latter succeed in drawing blood The bird is

capable of swallowing snakes five or six feet in length

lizards, tortoises, as well as locusts and other insects

The South American Seriama {Cariama cristatd) is

Campos of south-eastern Brazil and Argentina An

allied species, Burmeister's Seriama {Cliunga burmeisteri),

is found in the province of Tucuman Both forms of

Seriamaare ground birds,and the commonspecies inhabitsthe grassy country, while the Chunga lives in the forest

They have a harsh and screaming cry, and feed on insects

The Seriama II

and berries, as well as snakes and other reptiles They

The Seriama (Caj-ia/ua C7'istata).

their prey to a pulp by striking it with their feet. The

nest is placed in a low bush, and the two eggs are

some-12 Wonders of the Bird World

from that of the Cranes and Bustards, but it does to

some extentresemble that of the Secretary, which builds a

huge nest in a bush or a tree, and also lays but two eggs,

which are white, slightly smudged with rust-colour The

Seriama must in fact be considered as a survival of some

Ofthe Struthious or Ratite Birds^ there are fourdistinct

(^StruthionidcE) in Africa, and Rheas {Rheidce) in South America. the Emeus (DronimdcB) and the Cassowaries

livedwithin historictimes the gigantic Moas{DinornithidcB),

which had close allies in the great Struthious birds of

Madagascar {ALpyornis and Mullei-ornis) Of the Moas

in size, from the great Dinornis maxivms, which stoodtwelve feet high,tothesmaller forms,such^?,Anovialopteryxparva, which were not more than three feet in height

thus they resembledtheirsmaller New Zealand cousins,the

Kiwis, and differed from the Ostriches, Emeus, and Rheas

Thecause of the extinction ofthe Moas in New Zealand

on an exposed piece of rising ground,where a man, whileploughing, happened to unearth a large bone, which he

sent to Dr H O Forbes, who was then the Director of

the Christchurch Museum at Canterbury, New Zealand

On proceeding to the place Dr Forbes ascertained by

'So called from the absence ofa keel to the sternum or

breast-bone,whichthusresembles araftorflat-bottomed boat(ratis).

Ratite or Struthious Birds 13

probing the ground with an iron rod that the bones were

comparatively small and narrow space, not exceeding

sizes were discovered, as well as those of Geese, Ducks,

Birds of Prey, and other birds: so that, even if someunforeseen catastrophe had overwhelmed this herd of

flightless Moas, the presence of birds of such strong flight

as Ducks and Hawks is still unaccounted for It seems

such size and massiveness that some of them out-toppedour Ostriches in height, the wings were certainly vestigial,'^

even ifthey were developed at all.

The Ratita which survive at the present day are all

beinggigantic The latter birds are easily separated from

the other forms bytheirhaving only twotoes,norhavetheyany "after-shaft" to the body-feathers This "after-shaft,"

as it is called, has the appearance of a duplicate of the

main feather, and springs from the inner surface of the

base of the same quill. In mostbirds it isvery small, and

it is strongly developed and acquires the same length as

Emeus, Cassowaries,and Moas, which thus appear to beclothed with double feathers The Emeus [Diommda;) are

country, from many parts of which they have now beenexterminated They have no visible wings and tail, both

'Thewingsinthe Ratite Birds areoftenspokenof as"rudimentary,"but as they are reallythe remahisof what were once well-developedorgans,I prefer to speakofthemas"vestigial."

14 Wonders of the Bird World

of which are vestigial, and are hidden below the dense

same long "after-shaft" as the Emeus, but they show a

remarkable development of the wing; this consists of afew strong black shafts, resembling horny spines, which have no barbs like ordinary quills, but project beyond the

remnant ofa once functionalwing Allthe Cassowaries are

while on the top of the head there is usually a large horny

Guinea andthe adjacentislands,as well asin the Cape YorkPeninsula of Australia

The Rheas {Rhcidce) are exclusively South American intheir habitat; they resemble the Ostriches of Africa intheir general appearance, and in the want of an " after-

It may lastly be mentioned that in Madagascar there

have been found enormouseggs of a Ratite bird, generally

Madagascar within historic times, and of which the

sub-fossil remains of several species have been discovered The

The Kiwis differ much from the other Ratite Birds,

visible tail, but theypossess a hallux or hind toe Their

plumage is of a hairy texture, and with their long curved

bill, in which the nasal opening is situated nearthe tip

The Kiwis 15

and clumsy-footed Rails In my opinion they are nothingbut Struthious Rails, and they very much resemble the

latter birds in their nocturnal and retiring habits, and in

Struthious birds, however, they arc great adepts at

the Hon Walter Rothschild at a meeting of the British

Kiwi {Apteyyx australis).

massive claws

i6 Wonders of the Bird World

softground, and in search ofwhich theyareprobably aided

by a keen sense of touch and smell, in which the peculiar

remarkable feature in the Apteryx is the large size of thewhite eggs which it lays, in this respect resembling the

^pyornithida ofMadagascar.

mentioned, and that is,that the incubation of the eggs is

undertaken by the male bird As will be seen later on,

apparent cause, as the sexes are alikein colour

Neverthe-less it is a well-known feature in all the Ratite birds, which

is also shared by the Struthious Partridges {Tinamiformes)

of South America, known as Tinamous. It is, however,

bird, as the nesting-season approaches, begins to utter its

boominglove-notes, and drives away all the younger males

from the flock, or fights desperately for the harem with

any male of its own age and weight Mr W H Hudsonhas described these fights, which are carried on in a novelway, viz. by the two combatants twisting their long neckstogether and then biting viciously at each other's heads,

while they turn round and round, and pound the earth into

done their laying before the cock "becomes brood}'," he

When the young are hatched, he takes the greatest care ofthem, and it is then dangerous, says Mr Hudson, to

approach the Rhea on horseback, as the bird, with neck

suddenly, making sohuge and grotesque a figure that thetamest horsebecomes ungovernable with terror

The Common Rhea {Rhea aiiifriai)Ui), with tlic male 1 xl attending to the nestlings,

Ratite or Struthious Birds 19

Anothervery wonderfulbirdis the Hoatzin {Opistkocoinus

hoaziti) of South America. It seems to be a survival

onthe earth of some ancient form, for it possesses features

and it is also probably the surviving representative of a

type once widely distributed over the earth, as Professor

Milne-Edwards informs me that the bones of his genus

south of France, can only be compared with those of

some kind or another formerly lived in Europe

In appearance the Hoatzin is like a Game-bird, and it

was for many years considered to belong to the family of

Curassows {Cracidcz), which inhabit the South American

the Ratite Birds we have seen thatone of the most striking

find another development of this keel, differing from that

of other birds The keel is in fact onl)' found on the

bones belonging to this part of the skeleton, the coracoids

and the " merry-thought" or furcula,are fused together in a

manner unlike that of any other known bird 1he reason

provided

inhabitant of the rivers of Amazonia and the northern

20 Wonders of the Bird World

apparently nowhere a rare bird in these South American

emanates from it, it is known in some places as the "Stink

Bird" and is nowhere captured as an article of food It

the Curassows, but are of a creamy-buff colour with dark

Embryouf Hoauin After Pycraft.

spots, and closely resemble those of the Rallidce or Family

of Rails The bird has also other Ralline properties, for

it is also able to swim well, while the young, if forced to

born

The Hoatz.in isoften spoken of as a "reptilian" bird, as

Even the unfledged embryo shows claws on the pollex and

index digits of the wing, but these are much more strongly

developed in the full-grown nestling,which is covered with

The Hoatzin 23 brown down These little people use the claws on theirwings as if they were hands, and when disturbed theycrawl out of the nest on "all fours," as Mr Quelch tells

us, and not only try to escape by clinging on to every

little twig which offers itself, pulling themselves out of

danger by the use ofbill, feet,and wings,but, ifupset in the

they cannot be pursued

Nestling of Hoatzin. Froma specimen obtained by Mr.J J.Quelcb, exhibited

in tile Bird Gallery of the Natural History Museum.

CHAPTER II

WONDERFUL BIRDS {continued)

Frigate Bird.

The Megapodes or Mound-builders—The Whale-headed Stork—The

Dodo andits kindred—Darters—Frigate Birds—Steamer-Ducks

—Penguins

To the Australian Region we turn for our next wonderful

bird and find it in the Brush Turkey {Catlietnriis lathanii)

This bird belongs to the family of Megapodes or

in the Australian and Malaj^an sub-regions, extending as

by the fermentation of the latter or by the heat of the sun

The}' differ from allotherGame-birdsexceptthe Curassows

in having the hind toe on the same level as the other

24

The Mound-builders 25

toes, whereas in ordinary Game-birds the contrary is the

case, and the hind toe is elevated above the level of the

others

The name of Brush Turkey has been bestowed upon the

members of the genus Catlictitriis and its allies on account

an ordinary Turkey {Mclcagris) The size of the mound

which the Megapodes raise is sometimes enormous, and is

generally theworkof several birds Bothsexesare believed

to assist in the work of construction, which is achieved by

means oftheirpowerful feet ; these are apparentlythe most

stronglydeveloped "scratching" organs to be met with in

thewhole Class of Birds The moundsare used, and added

to, year after 3^ear. Many of them are of great size, and sometimesreach aheight offiveor six yards,with a circum-

mound is composed Gould says that he has seen the

Brush Turkey seize the material of which it was makingthe mound in its foot, and throw it back to one common

centre, the surface of the ground being so completelyscratched over that scarcely a leaf ora blade of grass was

the mound-building instinct is evidently inherent in the

bird Another singular feature in the economy of the

Megapode is that the nestlings, when they escape from

At the same time it appears certain that they do not

always avail themselves of their privilege, unique among

birds, for nestlings have been dug out of mounds at a

26 Wonders of the Bird World

is tempted to inquire howthey can sec, and on what they

feed during their imprisonment in the mound. In some

both parents revisit the mound and uncover the eggs The

latter are sometimes placed at an extraordinarydepth in

the mound Thus Gilbert relates that he saw eggs of theAustralian Megapodc {Megapodius tumulus) dug out by

the female in a hole in the mound, and the earth is thenstrewn very lightly and thehole covered up Several eggs

are found in the same mound, buteach in its separate hole,and with the broad end uppermost In many of the

passing ships, and the birds are therefore generally

pre-served with care, and even become semi-domesticated

Speaking of Brenchlcy's Megapode {M. brencJileyi) in the

Solomon Islands, Mr C M Wooiford says that when

he landed on Savo he saw "hundreds of Megapodes

"

stopping at his approach He writes

—

"The natives highly prize its eggs as an article of food

They areconsiderably larger than a duck's egg,and out of

all proportion to the size of the bird The birds lay inopen sandy clearings, generally near the sea,whicharekept

sand being constantly turned over by the birds The eggs

areburied sometimesas deeplyastwofeetfrom the surface,and are hatched bythe natural heat of the hotsand Many

thousands of birds congregate at the sameplace,the

laying-yards beingoften some acres in extent At the island ofSavo, wherethese birds especially abound, they become so