THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



conscious is provided by the fact that man alone 

 decorates his person. 



Certain creatures, such as the bower birds, 

 might seem to have some artistic tendencies in the 

 elaborate decoration of their bowers; but this is 

 only a curious development of the instinct of 

 courtship for nesting purposes encouraged by na- 

 ture for some useful reason. And I have little 

 doubt that this reason would easily be discovered 

 by anyone who, for that purpose, made an intelli- 

 gent study of the habits of bower birds in their 

 natural surroundings. 



The racket-tailed motmots, a species of South 

 American birds allied to the bee-eaters, have a 

 habit which comes nearer to personal decoration. 

 They nibble away the webs of their two central 

 tail feathers for an inch or an inch and a half, 

 leaving the bare shaft with a large racket at the 

 end of each, which adds greatly to their decora- 

 tive appearance in the antics of courtship. 



This unique habit on the part of a single species 

 of American birds looks at first sight very like 

 conscious self -decoration, but a moment's consid- 

 eration will show that the bird who first did it 

 could not have known that its work would have a 

 decorative effect in flight and in the antics of 

 courtship. There must have been some other rea- 

 son; and probably the bird who first nibbled off 

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