102 SEXUAL SELECTION I BIEDS. Part IL 



and the M. ATberti scratches for itself shallow holes, or, 

 as they are called by the natives, corroborying j^laces, 

 where it is believed both sexes assemble. The meet- 

 ings of the M. sujperha are sometimes A^ery large ; and 

 an account has lately been published^ 'by a traveller, 

 who heard in a valley beneath bim, thickly covered 

 with scrub, " a din which completely astonislied " him ; 

 on crawling onwards he beheld to his amazement about 

 one hundred and fifty of the magnificent lyre-cocks, 

 " ranged in order of battle, and fighting with inde- 

 " scribable fury." The bowers of the Bower-birds are 

 the resort of both sexes during the breeding-season ; 

 and " here the males meet and contend with each other 

 *' for the favours of the female, and here the latter 

 " assemble and coquet with the males." With two of 

 the genera, the same bower is resorted to during many 

 years.* 



The common magpie (Corvus pea, Linn.), as I have 

 been informed bv the Eev. W. Darwin Fox, used to 

 assemble from all parts of Delamere Forest, in order 

 to celebrate the " great magpie marriage." Some 

 years a^'O these birds abounded in extraordinary num- 

 bers, so that a gamekeeper killed in one morning 

 nineteen males, and another killed by a single shot 

 seven birds at roost together. Whilst they were so 

 numerous, they had the habit very early in the spring 

 of assembling at particular spots, where they could be 

 seen in flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling 

 and flvinGf about the trees. The whole affair was 

 evidently considered by the birds as of the highest 

 importance. Shortly after the meeting they all sepa- 

 rated, and were then observed by Mr. Fox and others 



3 Quoted by Mr. T. W. Wood in the ' Student,' April, 1870, p. 125. 

 * Gould, ' Handbook of Birds of Australia,' vol. i. p. 300, 808, 448, 

 451. On the ptarmigan, above alluded to, see Lloyd, ibid. p. 129. 



