37C THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



naturalist states that "the gesticulations and parade of the males 

 "at the beginning 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 cinerea) often 

 rises a few feet or yards in the air above some bush, and "flut- 

 "ters 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 whilst courting the fe- 

 male, as has been figured by Wolf. An allied Indian bustard 

 (Otis bengalensis) 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 feathers, shells, bones, and leaves, are built ou 

 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 de- 

 scribed™ 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 a 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 then the other, uttering a low, whistling 

 "note, and, like the domestic cock, seems to be picking up some- 

 "thing from the ground until at last the female goes gently 

 "towards him." Captain Stokes has described the habits and 



69 por Tetrao phasianellus, see Richardson, 'Fauna, Bor. America," 

 p. 361, and for furtlier particulars Capt. Blakiston, 'Ibis,' 1863, p. 125. 

 For tlie Cathartes and Ardea, Audubon, 'Ornith. Biography,' vol. ii. 

 p. 51, and vol. iii. p. 89. On the White-throat, Macglllivray, 'Hist. Brit- 

 ish Birds,' vol. ii. p. 354. On the Indian Bustard, Jerdon, 'Birds of 

 India, vol. iii. p. 618. 



" Gould, 'Handboolv to the Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pp. 444, 449, 

 455. The bower of the Satin Bower-bird may be seen in the Zoologicai 

 Society's Gardens, Regent's Park. 



