The Weapons of Birds
BY FREDERIC A. LUCAS
Cumin! n1 Camparzthe Anatomy u. 5. National Museum
IKE the good little boy who figured in the story books of our grandparents. the bird in literature is always gentle and well-behaved; in real life neither the boy nor the bird are quite as peaceable as they might be. It may be treasonable to say it in the columns of BlRD-LORE, but the fact is that even the best of birds fight now and then, while some of them are well provided with weapons of offense and defense. Sad to say, Pigeons, those favorite emblems of gentleness, are among the birds that fight most systematically: for they, or at least our domesticated birds, are skilled boxers, feinting, guarding and striking most dextrously with their wings. It might perhaps be pleaded that the manners of the Pigeon have suffered from long association with man, but, unfortunately, one of the species that grew up in total and for» tunate ignorance of man was provided (pity we can not say is) with a spe» cial weapon, a sort of natural slung»shot as it were, in the shape of a knob of bone on the wrist. The wrist of a bird, as most readers of BIRD—Loki: doubtless know, comes right at the bend of the wing, and there, or there- abouts. is the place where such a weapon would be most efiective. (Fig. L) The bird that were this knob of bone was the Flightless Soli» taire, a big, overgrown, aberrant Pigeon related to the equally aberrant Dodo, though better-looking, and confined to the ifland of Rodriguez, where years ago the Frenchmen "caught him, and cooked him, and ate him "~ quite out of existence. no. .. Part nl rm- nine or tiu- Solitair:
Francois Leguat, the historian of the Solitaire, to whom we are obliged to turn for all information concerning this bird, wrote that, "The Bone of this Wing grows greater towards the Extemity, and forms a little round mass under the Feathers as big as a musket. ball. They will not suffer any other Bird of their Species to come within two hundred Yards round of the Place; But what is very singular. is, the NIales will never drive away the Females. only when he perceives one he makes a noise with his Wings to call the Female, and she drives the unwelcome Stranger away, not leaving it 'till ’tis without her Bounds. The Female does the same as to the Males and he drives them away. We have observed this several Times and I afiirm it to be true."
"The Combats between them on this occasion last sometimes pretty long, because the Stranger only turns about and do's not fly directly from
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