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On one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birds assemble together, raise up their wings, stretch out their necks, and elevate their exquisite plumes, keeping them in a continual vibration. Between whiles they fly across from branch to branch in great excitement, so that the whole tree is filled with waving plumes in every variety of attitude and motion.
My hanging shelf was out of their reach; but having stupidly left a box which served as a step, a full-plumaged Paradise bird was next morning missing; and a dog below the house was to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with the fine golden plumes all trampled in the mud.
Mary Acton's marketing glance was abstractedly fixed upon the actual corpus delicti; each fine plump bird, full-plumaged, young-spurred; yes, they were still warm, and would eat tender, so she mechanically began to pluck them; while, as for poor downcast Roger, he remembered, with a conscience-sting that almost made him start, his stolen bit of money in the morning so, how could he condemn?
In their industry they seemed to display the defects and advantages of the quality of youth enthusiasm, impulsiveness and vigour, inexperience, haste, and irrelevance. Let the diary notes tell of the enterprise as scrutinised through the telescope: Nov. 15. Birds seem inclined to build. Notice that the birds are in pairs; no old, full-plumaged among them. First beginning of nests.
The second or third day they would be dull, and in several cases they were seized with convulsions, and fell off the perch, dying a few hours afterwards. I tried immature as well as full-plumaged birds, but with no better success, and at length gave it up as a hopeless task, and confined my attention to preserving specimens in as good a condition as possible.
The Smew can only be considered an occasional accidental autumnal visitant, and the few that do occur are generally either females, young males, or males still in a state of change. I do not know of any instance in which a full-plumaged male has occurred in the Channel Islands. It is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey only.
I have since frequently seen the full-plumaged ones while uttering that note in the spring. I walked over the carry alone and waited at the head of the lake. An eagle, or some other large bird, flew screaming away from its perch by the shore at my approach. For an hour after I reached the shore there was not a human being to be seen, and I had all that wide prospect to myself.
Mary Acton's marketing glance was abstractedly fixed upon the actual corpus delicti; each fine plump bird, full-plumaged, young-spurred; yes, they were still warm, and would eat tender, so she mechanically began to pluck them; while, as for poor downcast Roger, he remembered, with a conscience-sting that almost made him start, his stolen bit of money in the morning so, how could he condemn?
It is this species whose dancing parties Wallace thus describes: "On one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birds assemble, raise their wings vertically over the back, stretch out their necks, and raise and expand their exquisite long plumes till they form two magnificent golden fans, which are kept in continual vibration.
You are not going to fight." "Never mind that. I am not going to have them put away." "Why not?" "Because I want to put them on sometimes." "Bah! To go and strut about like a full-plumaged young cockerel in the spring, and look at yourself in a bit of glass!"
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