Mateship with Birds by A. H. Chisholm

Author:A. H. Chisholm [Chisholm, A. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NAT043000, NAT004000, NAT037000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2013-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VII

THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE CREST

IT MIGHT REASONABLY be said that all crested birds are notable figures among their kind. Certainly, there is a perfectly definite distinction attached to species which possess this lively ornament.

The comparative rarity of the crest is the first factor in this consideration, but a more potent one is the fact that it gives to its owner a sprightliness, and, indeed, a dignity, which many birds of more brilliant plumage cannot display. I would not go so far as to compare the crest with a woman’s “crown of glory.” Obviously, the former is a much less essential decoration — that is to say, the bird could better afford to lose its crest than the woman could to part with her hair — so much so that one wonders what purpose brought it into being. Howbeit, the fact remains that the distinction of the crest is not lost upon its owner. I have never yet seen a crested bird, young or old, that did not display some indication of the possession of a belief that he (or she) was one of Nature’s anointed.

You see these qualities of sprightliness and conscious dignity exhibited by the Cockatoos, and particularly by the pink (Cockalerina) species, which verily appears to have an assured knowledge of the fact that it possesses the most beautiful crest of any bird in Australia. Alas for its owner, these variegated feathers are, like the golden crowns of the old-world Hoopoes, all too fatal in their beauty! The Pink Cockatoo is rapidly becoming one of the rarest of its race. Happily, such is not the case with the regal Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, which (despite the demand which exists for it as a household pet) is still to be found in considerable numbers in most free spaces of the land. Nor does it appear that the several other crested Cockatoos are in any immediate danger. Even the lovable little Cockatoo Parrot seems to be holding its own fairly well. A gentle, affectionate creature this, but withal possessing something of that perky dignity which is, so to say, the sign of the crest.

Apart from the Cockatoo tribe, there are very few of our larger birds decorated with crests; and among the passerine (perching) birds only four genera are so distinctive — that is, excluding the Helmeted Honeyeater, whose “helmet” is more a tuft than a crest, and one or two Flycatchers, whose curious little bunches of head-feathers are really only half-crests and seldom remarked on. The four others referred to are the Whip-Birds (three species), Shrike-Tits (three species), Wedge-bill (one species), and Bell-Bird (one species), each of which is a remarkable, purely Australian genus. They differ a good deal in choice of habitat, but have, on the whole, more points in affinity than otherwise. The Wedge-bill, a hermit-like recluse of the interior, may be regarded as an inland analogy of the shy Whip-Bird of the coastal fastnesses, and the Shrike-Tit has often struck me as being an arboreal edition of Oreoica, the Bell-Bird.

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