THE BOWER BIBD. 



339 



Perhaps the whole range of ornithology does not produce a 

 more singular phenomenon than the fact of a bird building a 

 house merely for amusement, and decorating it with brilliant 

 objects as if to mark its destination. Such a proceeding marks 

 a great progress in civilization, even among human races. The 

 savage, pure and simple, has no notion of undergoing more 



THE BOWER BIRD. 



labour than can be avoided, and thinks that setting his wives to 

 build a hut is quite as much labour as he chooses to endure. 



The native Australians have no places of amusement. They 

 will certainly dance their corroboiy in one part of the forest 

 in preference to another, but merely because the spot happens 

 to be suitable without the expenditure of manual labour. The 

 Bushman has no place of resort, neither has the much farther 

 advanced Zulu Kafir. Even the New Zealander, who is the 



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