308 THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS chap. 



When the birds have arrayed themselves for 

 spring, there is heard that outburst of song that gives 

 to an English wood or shrubbery a charm that is said 

 to be often wanting in a tropical forest. In England, 

 however, we have not the performances that are made 

 up of music, partly vocal, partly instrumental, and 

 dancing that is sometimes sedate and sometimes 

 madly wild. The best account of these is given in 

 Mr. Hudson's Naturalist in La Plata, a book which 

 should be read by all who wish to enter into the lives 

 of animals. I give a few instances from other sources. 

 In the Nineteenth Century} speaking of the dances of 

 a kind of grouse Mr. John Worth writes : " One of 

 the cocks lowers his head, spreads out his wings 

 nearly horizontally, and his tail perpendicularly, dis- 

 tends his air-sacs 2 and erects his feathers, then rushes 

 across the floor, taking the shortest of steps, but 

 stamping his feet so hard and so rapidly, that the 

 sound is like that of the kettle-drum ; and at the 

 same time he utters a kind of bubbling crow, which 

 seems to rise from his air-sacs, beats the air with 

 his wings, and vibrates his tail so that he produces 

 a loud rustling noise, and thus becomes a really 

 astonishing spectacle. Soon after he commences, 

 all the cocks join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, 

 crowing, and dancing furiously ; louder and louder 

 the noise, faster and faster the dance becomes, until 

 at last they madly whirl about, leaping over each 

 other in their excitement." The Australian Bower 



1 April, 1893. 



2 I.e., the coloured sacks on his neck. The "floor" is the 

 spot where the birds meet for these performances. 



