UNPAIKED BIRDS. 401 



middle of March to the middle of May. In Australia the lyre- 

 bird (Menura superba) forms "small round hillocks," and the M. 

 Alberti scratches for itself shallow holes, or, as they are called 

 by the natives, corroborying places, where it is believed both 

 sexes assemble. The meetings of the M. superba are sometimes 

 very large; and an account has lately been published' by a 

 traveler, who heard in a valley beneath him, thickly covered 

 with scrub, "a din which completely astonished" him; on crawl- 

 ing onwards he beheld to his amazement about one hundred and 

 fifty of the magnificent lyre-cocks, "ranged in order of battle, and 

 "fighting with indescribable fury." The bowers of the Bower- 

 birds are the resort of both sexes during the breeding-season; 

 and "here the males meet and contend with each other for the 

 "favors of the female, and here the latter assemble and coquet 

 "with the males." With two of the genera, the same bower is 

 resorted to during many years.* 



The common magpie (Corvus pica, Linn.), as I have been in- 

 formed by the Rev. W. Darwin Pox, used to assemble from all 

 parts of Delamere Forest, in order to celebrate the "great mag- 

 "pie marriage." Some years ago these birds abounded in extraor- 

 dinary numbers, so that a gamekeeper killed in one morning nine- 

 teen males, and another killed by a single shot seven birds at 

 roost together. They then had the habit of assembling very 

 early in the spring at particular spots, where they could be seen 

 in flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling and flying about 

 the trees. The whole affair was evidently considered by the birds 

 as one of the highest importance. Shortly after the meeting they 

 all separated, and were then observed by Mr. Fox and others to 

 be paired for the season. In any district in which a species does 

 not exist in large numbers, great assemblages cannot, of course, 

 be held, and the same species may have different habits in dif- 

 ferent countries. For instance, I have heard of only one instance, 

 from Mr. Wedderburn, of a regular assemblage of black game in 

 Scotland, yet these assemblages are so well known in Germany 

 and Scandinavia that they have received special names. 



Unpaired Birds. — From the facts now given, we may conclude 

 that the courtship of birds, belonging to widely different groups, 

 is often a prolonged, delicate, and troublesome affair. There is 

 even reason to suspect, improbable as this will at first appear, 

 that some males and females of the same species, inhabiting the 

 same district, do not always please each other, and consequently 

 do not pair. Many accounts have been published of either the 



= Quoted by Mr. T. W. Wood In the 'Student,' April, 1870, p. 125. 

 • Gould, 'Handbook to the Birds of Australia,' vol. 1. pp. 300, 308, 448, 

 451. On the ptarmigan, above alluded to, see Lloyd, ibid. p. 129. 

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