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In birds it is almost as peculiar. It has no woodpeckers and no pheasants families which exist in every other part of the world; but instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honeysuckers, the cockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which are found nowhere else upon the globe.
Jerdon, Dr., on birds dreaming; on the pugnacity of the male bulbul; on the pugnacity of the male Ortygornis gularis; on the spurs of Galloperdix; on the habits of Lobivanellus; on the spoonbill; on the drumming of the Kalij-pheasant; on Indian bustards; on Otis bengalensis; on the ear-tufts of Sypheotides auritus; on the double moults of certain birds; on the moulting of the honeysuckers; on the moulting of bustards, plovers, and drongos; on the spring change of colour in some finches; on display in male birds; on the display of the under-tail coverts by the male bulbul; on the Indian honey-buzzard; on sexual differences in the colour of the eyes of hornbills; on the markings of the Tragopan pheasant; on the nidification of the Orioles; on the nidification of the hornbills; on the Sultan yellow-tit; on Palaeornis javanicus; on the immature plumage of birds; on representative species of birds; on the habits of Turnix; on the continued increase of beauty of the peacock; on coloration in the genus Palaeornis.
In the Eastern Islands these are absolutely unknown, honeysuckers and small lories being the most common birds, so that the naturalist feels himself in a new world, and can hardly realize that he has passed from the one region to the other in a few days, without ever being out of sight of land.
We have two kinds of evidence to tell us which bird in this case is the model, and which the copy. The honeysuckers are coloured in a manner which is very general in the whole family to which they belong, while the orioles seem to have departed from the gay yellow tints so common among their allies. We should therefore conclude that it is the latter who mimic the former.
Honeysuckers and lories take the place of the woodpeckers, barbets, trogons, and fruit thrushes of the western islands, and the many mammals belonging to Asiatic genera are no more seen. Mr.
When fresh killed, the contrast of the vivid blue with the rich colours of the plumage is remarkably striking and beautiful. Handsome woodpeckers and gay kingfishers, green and brown cuckoos with velvety red faces and green beaks, red-breasted doves and metallic honeysuckers, were brought in day after day, and kept me in a continual state of pleasurable excitement.
The swan, ducks, cranes, and waterfowl, besides honeysuckers, and many other birds, were all fanning the air with their wings, and crying, "Turn him out!" "Disgusting!" "I never heard of such a thing in my life! the smell of it always gives me a headache!" and there was such a noise that the jury all woke up, and Dot covered her ears with her hands.
On the one side we have baboons, lions, elephants, buffaloes, and giraffes; on the other spider-monkeys, pumas, tapirs, anteaters, and sloths; while among birds, the hornbills, turacos, orioles, and honeysuckers of Africa contrast strongly with the toucans, macaws, chatterers, and hummingbirds of America.
In birds, Australia has also very strange specimens, such as the ostrich which can not fly, but can outrun a horse and kills its prey by kicking forward like a man. Australia also has immense mound-making turkeys, honeysuckers and cockatoos, but no woodpeckers, quail or pheasants.
For example, among the commonest birds in Lombock were white cockatoos and three species of Meliphagidae or honeysuckers, belonging to family groups which are entirely absent from the western or Indo-Malayan region of the Archipelago.
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