SEXUAL SELECTION 493 



little white-tbroat (^Sylvia cinerea) often rises a few feet 

 or yards in the air above some bush, and "flutters 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 while courting the 

 female, as has been figured by Wolf. An allied Indian 

 bustard {^Otis bengalensis) at such times "rises perpendicu- 

 larly 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 

 manoeuvre 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 on 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 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 

 larg« leaf, utter a curious kind of note, set all his feathers 



" For Tetrao phasian^iis, see Bichardson, "Fauna Bor. America," p. 361, 

 and for further particulars Capt. Blakiaton, "Ibis," 1863, p. 125. For the 

 Cathartes and Aniea, Audubon, "Omith. Biography," vol. ii. p. 51, and vol. 

 iii. p. 89. On the 'WTiite-throat, MacgiUivray, "Hist. British Birds," vol. ii. 

 p. 364. On the Indian Bustard, Jerdou, "Birds of India," vol. iii. p. 618. 



«• Gonld, "Handbook to the Birds of Australia," vol. i. pp. 444, 449, 455. 

 The bower of the Satin Bower-bird may be seen in the Zoological Sociel^'a 

 Ckffdens^ Regent's Park 



