432 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



their rivals. With one of the disgusting carrion- 

 vultures (CatJiartes jofa) the same naturalist states that 

 " the gesticulations and parade of the males at the begin- 

 ning of the love season are extremely ludicrous." Certain 

 birds perform their love antics on "the wing, as we have 

 seen with the black African weaver, instead of on the 

 ground. During the spring our little white throat (Sylvia 

 cincrca) often rises a few feet or yards in the air above 

 some bush and " flutters with a fitful and fantastic motion, 

 singing all the while, and then drops to its perch." The 

 great English bustard throws himself into indescribably 

 odd attitudes while courting the female, as has been figured 

 by Wolf. An allied Indian bustard (Oils benyalensis) at 

 such times ''rises perpendicularly into the air with a 

 hurried flapping of his wings, raising his crest and puffing 

 out the feathers of his neck and breast and 'then drops to 

 the ground;" he repeats this maneuver several times, at 

 the same time humming in a peculiar tone. Such females 

 as happen to be near " obey this saltatory summons," and 

 when they approach he trails his wings and spreads his tail 

 like a turkey-cock.* 



But the most curious case is afforded by three allied 

 genera of Australian birds, the famous bower- birds no 

 doubt the co-descendants of some ancient species which 

 first acquired the strange instinct of constructing bowers 

 for performing their love antics. The bowers (fig. 46) 

 which, as we shall hereafter see, are decorated with feath- 

 ers, shells, bones and leaves, are built on the ground for 

 the sole purpose of courtship, for their nests are formed in 

 trees. Both sexes assist in the erection of the bowers, but 

 the male is the principal workman. So strong is this 

 instinct that it is practiced under confinement,"and Mr. 

 Strange has described! the habits of some satin bower-birds 

 which he kept in an aviary in New South AVales. "At 



* For Tetrrto phasianellns, see Richardson, " Fauna. Bor. Amer- 

 ica," p. 361, and for further particulars. Capt. Bl.-ikiston, " Ibis,''' 

 1863, p. 125. For the Cathartes and Ardea, Audubon, " Ornith. 

 Biography," vol. ii, p. 51, and vol. iii, p. 89. On the white throat, 

 Maci>-illivray. "Hist. British Birds," vol. ii, p. 354. Oil the Indian 

 bustard, Jerdon, " Birds of Irdia," vol. iii, p. 618. 



f Gould, "Hand-book to Ike Birds of Australia," vol. i, pp.444, 

 449, 455. The bower of the satin bower-bird may be seen in the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent Park. 



