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Show 70 SEXUAL SELECTION : BIRDS. PAUT u. . - ms to be picking up some- " like the domestic cocJ,, sec "l l· ·t the female goes . f t'· . ·ound untl at a,s . l " thmg rom nc g 1 .._, ' . . ''t kes ]1as clescnbec 1 h" " U1ptam o o · < " gently to war( s lm. ' ~. f nother species, the the habits and "play-hou es o a .. '"""' ~ - .CHAP. XIII. DECORATION • 71 Great Bower-bird, :which was seen "amusing itself by " flying backwards and forwards, taking a shell alter" nately from each side, and carrying it through the " archway in its mouth." . These curious structures, formed solely as halls of assemblages, where both sexes .amuse themselves and pay their court, must cost the birds much labour. The bower, for instance, of the fawn-breasted species, is nearly four feet in length, eighteen inches in height, and is raised on a thick platform of sticks. Decomtion.-l will first discuss the cases in which the males are ornamented either exclusively or in a much higher degree than the females; and in a succeeding chapter those in which both sexes are equally ornamented, and finally the rare cases in which the female is somewhat more brightly-coloured than the male. As with the artificial ornaments used by savage and civilised men, so with tho natural ornament::; of birds, the head is the chief seat of clecoration.60 ~f.lhe ornaments, as mentioned at the commencement of this chapter, are wonderfully cliYersified. The plumes on tho front or back of the head consist of variously-shaped feathers, sometimes capable of erection or expansion, by which their beautiful colours are fully displayed. Elegant ear-tufts (see fig. 39 ante) are occasionally present. The head is sometimes covered with velvety down like that of the pheasant; or is naked and vividly coloured; or supports fleshy appendages, filaments, and solid protuberances. ~rhe throat, also, is sometimes ornamented with a beard, or with wattles or caruncles. Such appendages are generally brightly coloured, and no doubt serve as r.o ' e remarks to this efiect, on the "l~ccling of Deauty among Animtds," by Mr. J. Shaw, in tho' Athenroum,' Nov. 24th, 1866, p. G81. |