io8 



Marvels of the Universe 



THL KEl-ENI BOUER-BIRD AND IIS LiOV\ EK. 



. ;/. (.ruiitoM. 

 This Bower-bird erects a smaller bower than some other species, and the most conspicuous decorations it uses are shells. 



or so apart, adding to the piles year by year until they meet. In old houses one pile is always higher 

 than another, and the higher one has been found three yards high — a good-sized edifice for a bird no 

 larger than a thrush ; this species being small for a Bower-bird. It is the higher pile or wall of the 

 V-shaped arcade that the birds decorate with flowers, especially favouring white orchids and rock- 

 lilies, while ferns and moss are also used. Quite a number of birds will frequent a large old bower, 

 and they are quaintly touchy about haviiig their decorations moved, so much so that the old males, 

 who seem to be the artistic spirits of the community, will fight each other over the implied criticism 

 of an altered decoration. Such a state of affairs seems to mark the limit attained by the evolution 

 of bird social displays, and we may hail Newton's Bower-bird as the most highly evolved creatm-e 

 outside man in the matter of refined and intellectual amusement ; indeed, considering the employ- 

 ments in which many of us humans find recreation, it is doubtful whether the bird has not the 

 advantage of us. 



The nearest allies of the Bower-birds are the Birds of Paradise on one side and the Crows — 

 especially the Jays — on the other ; and in both these groups we see indications of the instincts 

 which strike us as so wonderful in the developments described above. The Birds of Paradise have 

 the habit of assembling on certain trees to display ; and at least one species, Lawes' Bird of Paradise, 

 which is very like a Bower-bird in form and habits, has its dancing-place on the ground. The 

 Crows, on the other hand, display a great fondness for collecting bright- coloured objects ; at any 

 rate, their habit of stealing these is well known to those who have kept or watched these birds in 

 captivity. It is true that they only hoard these treasures up, but it may be that this seemingly 

 senseless habit is the starved remainder of an instinct for collecting and displaying bric-a-brac 

 which their primitive ancestors may have possessed, to gradually wear away in the struggle for 

 life experienced by their descendants in the course of their wide distribution over the world. It is 

 significant that the Bower-birds, with their wonderful habits, are confined to Australasia, a region 

 where life seems to be more secure, judging by the survival there of so many forms of life which, in 

 structure at all events, are undeniably primitive, pointing to a less acute struggle for existence. 



