68 Transactions. 



advantage, and that by its participation in human senti- 

 ments it has succeeded to make itself proverbial for ostenta- 

 tion and for pride. Both these animals are fond of a mirror, 

 and the first became courteous to a picture of itself. 



The great taste displayed in nest building — the passion 

 which some birds, especially of the family Corvidae, have for 

 glittering pieces, shining or brilliant metallic objects, and even 

 for snatching up bits of burning wood (witness the Cornish 

 Chough), and when possible storing past their acquisitions, 

 seems to arise from a feeling equally prominent in the rude 

 African and the nursery child, and common to many who are 

 neither Africans nor children. 



Not only do the magpie and raven exhibit their taste in 

 proximity to human habitations, but in the solitary wilder- 

 ness of America, 



The Bower-bird of Australia is perhaps the most striking 

 instance of the appreciation of beauty, the desire to conserve 

 it, as any which we could select. Its extraordinary tunnels, 

 which are its bridal chambers, are made with wonderful neat- 

 ness of architecture, and the entrances profusely garnished 

 with gay feathers of parrots, easily picked up in Australia, 

 with sea shells, with pebbles, coloured bits of rags, or pottery, 

 or whatever odd scrap that glitters which the animal can 

 most readily pick up. In this tunnel it struts ridiculously 

 until it attracts its mate, which, at the pairing season, it 

 easily does, and then the two gallop in and out most merrily. 

 "When the colonists lose anything, they invariably look for it 

 in these so called " bowers " or " runs," just as we look a mag- 

 pie's nest in similar circumstances. The sea shells are often 

 carried from afar and piled up in bushels. 



The dazzling lustre and charming variety of colours in the 

 eyes of animals, the profusion of ornament around the face and 

 head, or in those parts either most readily seen or capable of 

 being seen by erection or expansion, through means of power- 

 ful muscles, we can conceive to be due to natural selection 

 working unconsciously, just as the bird-fancier brings out his 

 favourite tufts and spangles by pairing the most suitable 



