160 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS, 



bright and conspicuous character which they may hap- 

 pen to find/' * 



Still more remarkable is the case of the bower bird, 

 which does not, indeed, adorn its nest, but builds a play- 

 house, in the shape of a tunnel on the ground, entirely 

 for the purposes of courtship, and decorates it in every 

 possible way. Both sexes w^ork in its construction, but 

 the male is the director. 



So strong is this instinct that it is practised under 

 confinement, and Mr. Strange has described the habits 

 of some satin bower birds which he kept in an aviary 

 in New South Wales: "At times the male will chase 

 the female all over the aviary, then go to the bower, 

 pick up a gay feather or a large leaf, utter a curious 

 kind of note, set all his feathers erect, run round the 

 bower, and become so excited that his eyes appear 

 ready to start from his head; he continues opening first 

 one wing and then the other, uttering a low, whistling 

 note, and, like the domestic cock, seems to be picking 

 up something from the ground, until at last the female 

 goes quietly toward him." Captain Stokes has described 

 the habits and " playhouses " of another species — the 

 great bower bird — which was seen " amusing itself by 

 flying backward and forward, taking a shell alternately 

 from each side, and carrying it in its mouth through the 

 archway. These curious structures, formed solely as 

 halls of assemblage, where both sexes amuse them- 

 selves and pay their court, must cost the birds much 

 labour. The bower, for instance, of the fawn-breasted 

 species is nearly four feet in length, eighteen inches in 

 height, and is raised on a thick platform of sticks/' f 



* Romanes, Darwin and after Darwin, i, p. 380. 

 f Cf. Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. ii, p. 77. 



