196 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



interesting, since we find that such substitution is already 

 made by a number of birds, as, for instance, the magpie 

 and the jackdaw, who collect all sorts of bright objects. 

 The allied bower-bird of Australia makes a " play-run " or 

 reception-room in which he places shells and bits of bone 

 to attract the female, and the gardener bird of New Guinea 

 clears a space in the scrub, roughly fences it and decorates it 

 daily with bright-coloured flowers and mushrooms, freshly 

 gathered and placed there by him, as any human bachelor 

 may decorate his sitting-room for the delectation of his 

 lady friends ! It is a very noteworthy fact that these birds, 

 which use extraneous decorative objects as lures, are them- 

 selves of dull plumage, but are allied to the wonderful 

 group of Birds of Paradise, which show the greatest variety 

 and brilliance of intrinsic decorative plumage known 

 among birds. The love of brilliant decoration is equally 

 keen in both groups, and is gratified in the one case by 

 the use of extrinsic objects, in the other by the growth 

 of intrinsic plumage. It appears that that strangely 

 anthropoid bird — the penguin — or rather one species of 

 penguin, familiar to Captain Scott and his companions 

 in the Antarctic, has a similar habit of using an extrane- 

 ous object as a gift or, shall we say, an excuse for an 

 introduction when courting. The male penguin is shown 

 in Mr. Poynting's wonderful cinema films of the Antarctic, 

 picking up a well-shaped stone of some size and ad- 

 vancing with it in his beak to the lady penguin whom he 

 has selected for his addresses. He places the stone at 

 her feet, and retires a pace or two watching her. It is as |j 

 though he said, " I am ready to build for you a first-class 

 nest ; best stones only used, of which this is a sample." 

 If he is fortunate she looks at the stone and then at him, 

 and without a word waddles to his side. Without more 

 ado she accepts his proposal, and the work of construct- 

 ing the stone-built nest is rapidly pushed on. 



