66 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part II. 



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. 58 



But the most curious case is afforded by three allied 

 genera of Australian birds, the famous Bower-birds — no 

 doubt the 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 principal workman. So 

 strong is this instinct that it is practised under confine- 

 ment, and Mr. Strange has described 60 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, like the domestic 

 cock, seems to be picking up something from the ground, 

 until at last the female goes gently toward him." Cap- 

 tain Stokes has described the habits and " play-houses " 

 of another species, the Great Bower-bird, which was seen 



58 For Tetrao phasianellus, see Richardson, ' Fauna Bor. America,' p. 

 361, and for further particulars Captain Blakiston, 'Ibis,' 1863, p. 125. 

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

 51, and voL iii. p. 89. On the White-throaty Macgillivray, 'Hist. British 

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

 vol. iii. p. 618. 



59 Gould, ' Hand-book to the Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pp. 444, 449, 

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

 Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park. 



