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Chap. XIII.
Display by the Male.
395

appearance. Similar facts have already been given with respect to grouse of various kinds. Turning to another Order. The male Rupicola crocea (fig. 50) is one of the most beautiful birds in the world, being of a splendid orange, with some of the feathers curiously truncated and plumose. The female is brownish-green, shaded with red, and has a much smaller crest. Sir R. Schomburgk has described their courtship; he found one

Fig. 50.
Rupicola crocea, male (T. W. Wood).

of their meeting-places where ten males and two females were present. The space was from four to five feet in diameter, and appeared to have been cleared of every blade of grass and smoothed as if by human hands. A male "was capering, to the apparent delight of several others. Now spreading its wings, throwing up its head, or opening its tail like a fan; now strutting about with a hopping gait until tired, when it