^06 The Descent of Man. Part TI. 



Some of the above birds, — the black-cock, capercailzie, 

 pheasant-grouse, ruff, Solitary snipe, and perhaps others, — are, as 

 is believed, polygamists. "With such birds it might have been 

 thought that the stronger males would simply have driven away 

 the weaker, and then at once have taken possession of as many 

 females as possible ; but if it be indispensable for the male to 

 Bxcite or please the female, we can understand the length of the 

 courtship and the congregation of so many individuals of both 

 sexes at the same spot. Certain strictly monogamous species 

 likewise hold nuptial assemblages ; this seems to be the case in 

 Scandinavia with one of the ptarmigans, and their leks last from 

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

 lyre-bird {Menura .saperSif) forms "small round hillocks," and 

 the M. Alhi-rti scratches for itself shallow holes, or, as they are 

 called by the natives, conohorying placus, where it is believed 

 both sexes assemble. The meetings of the M. saperba are some- 

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

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

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

 crawling onwards he beheld to his amazement about one hun- 

 Ired and fifty of the magnificent lyre-cooks, " 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 favours of the female, and here the latter assemble and 

 " coquet with the males." With two of the genera, the same 

 lx)wer is resorted to during many years.' 



The common magpie {Corvna pica, Linn.), as I have been in- 

 formed by the Eev. W. Darwin Fox, 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 extra- 

 ordinary numbers, so that a gamekeeper killed in one morning 

 nineteen males, and another killed by a single shot seven bii-ds 

 at roost together. They then had the habit of assembling very 

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

 in flock,"!, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling and flying 

 r.bout the trees. The whole afiair 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 

 ft species does not exist in large numbers, great assemblages 

 cannot, of course, be held, and the same species may have 



• Quoted by Mr. T. W. Wood in of Australia,' vol. i. pp. 300, 308, 

 »!'e ' Student,' April, 1870, p. 125. 448, 451. On the ptarmigan, .ibovi 



* Gonld, 'Hiodhook t') '.lie B'jds alluded to, see Lloyd, ibidrp. 129. 



