Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson II · Topic 1: Bird study: how a bird is made
2. Feathers as ornament
Goal: Your child can describe how a rooster's or drake's plumage differs from the hen's, and give Comstock's reason why the mother bird is often plainer.
You'll need
- A chance to see a hen and rooster, or a duck and drake (a farm, park pond or fair)
- A peacock feather or a good picture of a peacock (optional)
- A bird book or pictures of the Baltimore oriole, goldfinch, scarlet tanager and cardinal
- Colored pencils
- Nature notebook
What's in the book
The leading thought and method, then eleven questions comparing hen and rooster, turkey hen and gobbler, duck and drake, and the oriole pair, and ending with a peacock feather. A poem by Robert Greene closes the lesson.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Any season. Mallard ducks on a park pond are the easiest male and female pair to compare: the drake has the shining green head. A farm or fair with a rooster or a turkey gobbler is even better. Spring is a good time to see wild male birds in their brightest colors.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself; let your child discover it:
The color of feathers and often their shape are for the purpose of making birds more beautiful; while in others, the color of the feathers protects them from the observation of their enemies.
Compare the pair
Look at a hen and rooster, or a duck and drake.
Note difference in shape and color of the tail feathers of hen and rooster.
Do the graceful curved tail feathers of the rooster help him in flying? Are they stiff enough to act as a rudder?
Which do you think the more beautiful the hen or the rooster?
On the pond:
Is the drake more beautiful than the duck?
The showing-off bird
If you can see a turkey gobbler, watch him strut.
Note how he turns his spread tail this way and that so the sunshine will bring out the beautiful changeable colors. Do you think he does this so you can see and admire him?
If not, look at a picture of a peacock with his tail spread.
Why is the mother plain?
Ask Comstock's big question:
What advantage is it for these fowls to have the father bird more beautiful and bright in color than the mother bird?
Let your child think about who sits on the nest, and who would be easier for a hawk or a fox to see.
The peacock feather
If you have a peacock feather or a picture:
Study a peacock's feather. What color is the eye-spot? What color around that? What color around that?
Count the rings of color together.
Put it into words
Ask: Why might a father bird be bright and a mother bird plain? Then share the leading thought.
Comstock wrote that the mother bird chooses the brightest mate. Scientists today still agree that females choosing mates is a big reason males of many birds are so colorful.
Nature notebook
Draw the male and female of one kind of bird side by side in color: a rooster and hen, a drake and duck, or a cardinal pair from the bird book. Label which is which.
Afterwards
Keep a list this week of bird pairs you can tell apart, male from female.
Tip
Stay a good step back from roosters, ganders and turkey gobblers. They can peck and flap hard when they guard their flock.