BIRDS. 461 



Some of the above birds the black-cock, capercailzie, 

 pheasant-grouse, ruff, solitary snipe, and perhaps others 

 are, as is believed, polygamists. With such birds it might 

 have been thought that the stronger males would simply 

 have driven away the weaker, and then at once have taken 

 possession of as many females as possible; but if it be indis- 

 pensable for the male to excite or please the female, we can 

 understand the length of the courtship and the congrega- 

 tion of so many individuals of both sexes at the same spot. 

 Certain strictly monogamous species likewise hold nuptial 

 assemblages; this seems to be the case in Scandinavia with 

 one of the ptarmigans, and their leks last from the middle 

 of March to the middle of May. In Australia the lyre- 

 birds (Menura superha) forms '* small round hillocks,"' and 

 the M. Alberti scratches for itself shallow holes, or, as they 

 are called by the natives, corrohorying i^laces, where it is 

 believed both sexes assemble. The meetings of the M. 

 superha are sometimes very large; and an account has 

 lately been published * by a traveler, who heard in a valley 

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

 completely astonished "' him ; on crawling onward he 

 beheld, 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 breed- 

 ing-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, f 



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

 been informed by the Kev. W. Darwin Fox, used to 

 assemble 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. 

 They then had the habit of assembling very early in the 

 spring at particular spots, where they could be seen in 



* Quoted by Mr. T. W Wood in the " Student," April, 1870, p. 

 125. 



f Gould, " Hand-book to the Birds of Australia," vol. i, pp. 300, 

 308, 448, 451. On the ptarmigan, above alluded to, see Lloyd, ibid, 

 p. 129. 



