SEXUAL SELECTION 525 



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 

 informed by the Eev. W. Darwin Pox, used to assemble 

 from all parts of Delamere Forest, in order to celebrate the 

 "great magpie marriage." Some years ago these birds 

 abounded in extraordinary numbers, so that a gamekeeper 

 killed in one morning nineteen nfales, 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, chat- 

 tering, 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 num- 

 bers, great assemblages cannot, of course, be held, and the 

 same species may have different habits in different coun- 

 tries. 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 Mrds, — From the facts now given we may 

 conclude that the courtship of birds belonging to widely 

 different groups is often a prolonged, delicate, and trouble- 

 some 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 male or female 

 of a pair having been shot, and quickly replaced by another. 



* GonH, "Handbook to the Birds of Australia," vol i. pp. 300, 308, 448, 

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

 Descent — Yol. U. — 5 



