178 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the bower or run of the Australian Bower-birds. Had these two 

 Grebes paired or coquetted about the old nest whilst they were 

 building the new one, here would have been, in fact, something 

 very like the actual bower ; and that a nest might come in time 

 to be regularly made for this special purpose, and then used more 

 generally, and also to be more and more ornamented and modified 

 owing to general or special causes (with regard to which latter I 

 would refer again to my previous remarks), should not seem very 

 astonishing to any evolutionist. 



Once let there be pairing on the nest — which I have seen in 

 other instances — and the bower, as it appears to me, is no longer 

 such a mystery. 



Of course, I am aware how widely the bower often differs 

 from the nest of the same bird, yet not more widely than does 

 one nest, or even one bower, from another, or than a palace or 

 other elaborate building differs from a savage dwelling, or even 

 from a small house or cottage. 



Differences in the site chosen for the nest and bower may 

 offer a difficulty, but, if I mistake not, the principle of evolution 

 has been accepted as overcoming greater difficulties than this. 

 Birds, indeed, exhibit great adaptability in the placing of their 

 nests. 



It is true that in standard works of ornithology we are told 

 that the "bowers" have nothing to do with the nests of the 

 species making them, whilst, at the same time, complete ignorance 

 as to their origin and meaning is confessed. If we know nothing 

 about a thing, how do we know that it has nothing to do with 

 some other thing ? On the other hand, when we find a vast 

 number of birds making a certain structure — the nest — which 

 is an outcome and effect, with them, of the sexual instinct, 

 and when we find also a few birds making, besides the regular 

 nest, other structures of a more directlj' sexual character — 

 as to which one has only to read the accounts, or to observe 

 the actions, of the Satin Bower Birds in the Zoological Gar- 

 dens — the 'prima facie likelihood would seem to be that there 

 is, and not that there is not, a connection between the two 

 instincts. 



May 23r^. — First I will say that I forgot to note down 

 yesterday that, after the birds had been building some little while, 



