38 SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. [Part II. 



it is believed both sexes assemble. The meetings of the 

 31. superba are sometimes very large ; and an account has 

 lately been published 3 by a traveller, who heard in a val- 

 ley beneath him, thickly covered with scrub, " a din which 

 completely astonished " him ; on crawling onward he be- 

 held to his amazement about one hundred and fifty of the 

 magnificent lyre-cocks, "ranged in order of battle, and 

 fighting with indescribable 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 favors 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. 4 



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

 been informed by the Rev. W. Darwin Fox, used to as- 

 semble from all parts of Delamere Forest, in order to 

 celebrate the " great magpie marriage." Some years ago 

 these birds abounded in extraordinary numbers, so that a 

 gamekeeper killed in one morning nineteen males, and 

 another killed by a single shot seven birds at roost together. 

 While 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 fight- 

 ing, bustling and flying about the trees. The whole affair 

 was evidently considered by the birds as of the highest 

 importance. Shortly after the meeting they all separated, 

 and were then observed by Mr. Fox and others to be 

 paired for the season. In any district in which a species 

 does not exist in large numbers, great assemblages cannot, 

 of course, be held, and the same species may have differ- 

 ent habits in different countries. For instance, I have 



3 Quoted by Mr. T. W. Wood in the 'Student,' April, 18*70, p. 125. 



4 Gould, ' Hand-book of Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pp. 300, 308, 448 

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



