Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1885 — Birds and Their Feathers. [ARTICLE]

Birds and Their Feathers.

The best time for seeing perfect feathering is in tlie tvin‘ter,' to the spring; then, after a very short honeymoon, the birds settle down to a few weeks their tail-sea. hers are rough and iiregular, their pinions worn and

ragged from constant contact with the nest in sitting; and by the time their new suit comes at midsummer they are more than ready for it. The spring, of course, is the climax of a bird’s life. With scrupulous care he arranges hourly his feathers, all their markings are seen to perfection, and many peculiarities of decoration are then and then alone displayed. The fleshy combsand protuberances become scarlet and enlarged, and any one who has not seen a pheasant or cock grouse at this season of love would be astonished at the alteration from his normal state. The cock pigeon swells that part of his body most adorned with iridescent feathers to make the grandest show he can; and every humble finch and small bird brushes up his modest finery. It is , said that not a single bright-colored feather on any bird’s body is left idle or undisplayed. If birds have bright- ' colored tails they raise them to t .eir highest and fullest and abase their : heads; if bright heads, then they shake out their plumes, their eye distends, and their wattles swell; and if, as in some cases, they have large tippets of feathers falling od both sides of the head, they contrive the bewilded hen shall see all the glories of both sides at one glance, and so drag all the feathers of the far side round to the near side, making such a huge mass that the face is nearly hidden, and the projecting beak wlone shows where the head must be. All this done for the hen’s benefit, and it is only done when she is •near; it all turns on her existence, and ceases if she be absent.— Clearies Whimper, in Magazine of Art.