Chap. XIII. LOVE-ANTICS. 69 



'' ground ; " lie repeats this manoeuvre several times 

 successively, at the same time humming in a peculiar 

 tone. Such females as happen to be near "obey this 

 " saltatory summons," and when they approach he 

 trails his wings and. spreads his tail like a turkey- 

 cock.^^ 



But the most curious case is afforded by three allied 

 genera of Australian birds, the famous Bower-birds, 

 • — no doubt tlie co-descendants of some ancient species 

 which first acquired the strange instinct of constructing 

 bowers for performing their love-antics. The bowers 

 (fig. 46), which, as we shall hereafter see, are highly 

 decorated with feathers, shells, bones and. leaves, are 

 built on the ground for the sole purpose of courtship, 

 for their nests are formed in trees. Both sexes assist 

 in the erection of the bowers, but the male is the prin- 

 cipal workman. So strong is this instinct that it is 

 practised under confinement, and Mr. Strange has 

 described ^^ the habits of some Satin Bower - birds, 

 which he kept in his aviary in New South Wales. " At 

 " times the male will chase the female all over the 

 " aviary, then go to the bower, pick up a gay feather 

 " or a large leaf, utter a curious kind of note, set all 

 '' his feathers erect, run round the bower and become 

 " so excited that his eyes appear ready to start from 

 " his head ; he continues opening first one wing, and 

 " then the other, uttering a low, whistling note, and, 



58 Yov Tetrao phasianellus, see Richai-dt^on, ' Fauna Bor. America,' 

 p. 361, and for further particulars Capt. Blakiston, ' Ibis,' 18G3, p. 125. 

 For the Cathartes and Ardea, Audubon, * Ornith. Biography,' vol. ii. 

 p. 51, and vol. iii. p. 89. On the White-throat, Macgillivriiy, ' Hist. 

 British Birds,' vol. ii. p. 354. On the Indian Bustard, Jerdon, ' Birds 

 of India,' vol. iii. p. 618. 



^9 Gould, ' Handbook to the Birds of Australia,' vol. i. p. 444, 449, 455. 

 The bower of the Satin Bower-bird may always be seen in the Zoolo- 

 logical Society's Gardens, Eegent's Park. 



