524 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



during dusk in a morass ; and the same place is frequented 

 for the same purpose during successive years; here they 

 may be seen running about "like so many large rats," 

 puffing out their feathers, flapping their wings, and utter- 

 ing the strangest cries.'' 



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

 pheasant-grouse, rufE, Solitary snipe, and perhaps others — 

 are, as is believed, polygamists. With such birds it might 

 have been thought that the stronger mates would simply 

 have driven away the weaker, and then at once have taken 

 possession of as many females as possible ; but if it be indis- 

 pensable for the male to excite 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 superba) forms "small round hillocks," and 

 the M. Alberti scratches for itself shallow holes, or, as they 

 are called by the natives, corrohorying 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 traveller, who heard in a valley be- 

 neath him, thickly covered with scrub, "a din which com- 

 pletely astonished" him; on crawling onward he beheld to 

 his amazement about one hundred and fifty of the magnifi- 

 cent 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 



' TiVith respect to the assemblages of the above-named grouse see Brehm, 

 "Thierleben," B. iv. s. 350; also L. Uoyd, "Game Birds of Sweden," 1867, 

 pp. 19, 78. Richardson, "Fauna Bor. Americana: Birds," p. 362. References 

 in regard to the assemblages of other birds have already been given. On Para- 

 disea see Wallace, in "Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.," vol. xx., 1857, p. 412. 

 On the snipe, Lloyd, ibid., p. 221. 



8 Quoted by Mr. T. W. Wood in the "Student," April, 1870, p. 126. 



