"
[10] Illust. Thierleben, 1864, B. i. s. 130.
Birds belonging to all the chief Orders ruffle their feathers
when angry or frightened. Every one must have seen two cocks,
even quite young birds, preparing to fight with erected neck-hackles;
nor can these feathers when erected serve as a means of defence,
for cock-fighters have found by experience that it is
advantageous to trim them. The male Ruff (_Machetes pugnax_)
likewise erects its collar of feathers when fighting.
When a dog approaches a common hen with her chickens, she spreads
out her wings, raises her tail, ruffles all her feathers,
and looking as ferocious as possible, dashes at the intruder.
The tail is not always held in exactly the same position;
it is sometimes so much erected, that the central feathers, as in
the accompanying drawing, almost touch the back. Swans, when angered,
likewise raise their wings and tail, and erect their feathers.
They open their beaks, and make by paddling little rapid starts forwards,
against any one who approaches the water's edge too closely.
Tropic birds[13] when disturbed on their nests are said not to
fly away, but "merely to stick out their feathers and scream.
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