OCR Text |
Show 10~ SEXUAL SELECTION: BIRDS. PART If. and the M. Alberti scratches for itself shallow holes, or, as they are called by the nati res, corrobo1·ying places} where it is believed both sexes assemble. Tho meetings of the M. superba are sometimes very large ; :mel an account has lately been publishocl 3 by a traveller, who heard in a valley beneath him, thickly covered with scrub, "a din which completely astonished '' him; on crawling onwards he beheld to his amazement about oue hundred and fifty of the magnificent lyre-cocks, "ranged in orcler of battle, and fighting with indo" scribable fury." The bowers of the Bower-birds arc the resort of both sexes during the breeding-season ; and "here the males meet and contend with each other " for tho favours of the female, and here the latter " assemble and coquet with the males." vVith two of tho genera, the same bower is 1·esorted to during many years.4 Tho common magpie (Corvus pica, Linn.), a.· I have been informed by the Rev. W. Darwin Fox, usecl to assemble from all parts of Delamero 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 males, and another killed by a single shot seven birds at roost together. vVhilst they were so numerous, they had the habit very early in the spring of assembling at particular spots, where they could be seen in flocks, chattering, sometimes fighting, bustling and flying about the trees. rrhe whole affair was evidently considered by the birds as of the highest importance. Shortly after the meeting they all sepaDatcd, and were then observed by Mr. Fox and other 3 Quoted by 1\Ir. '1'. W. Woocl in the' 'tudent,' April, 1870, p. l2G. 4 Gould, 'Un.ndbook of Birds of Australia,' vol. i. p. 300, BO , 448. 4GL On the vtarmigau, above alluded to, sec Lloyd, ibid. p. 129. CHAP. XIV. UNPAIRED BIRDS. 103 to be paired for the season. In any district in which ~l RpeCie. does not exist in large numbers, great assem-ages cannot, of course, be held, and the same species ~nay have different habits in different countries. For mstance, I have never met with any account of regular assemblages of black game in Scotland, yet these ass~ mbl~ges are so well known in Germany and Scandmavia that they have special names. Unpaired Bi,rds.-From the facts now O'iven we may conclude tha.t with birds belonging to ~idel~-different groups then courtship is often a prolonged, delicate, and. troublesome affair. There is even reason to suspect, Improbable as this will at first appear, that some males. an~ females of the same species, inhabiting ~he same d1stnct, do not always please each other and 111 consequence do not pair. Many accounts have been published of either the male or female of a pair havinobeen shot, and: quickly replaced by another. This ha~ b~en observed m?re fre~uently with the magpie than With any other bud, ow111g perhaps to its conspicuous appea.ra.nc~ an~ nest. The illustrious Jenner states that 111 W1lt~h1re one of a pair was daily shot no less "th£a n tsle ven tim·e s. succes.s ively, "but all to no pur.p ose, or 1e rema111~ng magpie soon found ~mother mate ; " ~nd the last pair reared their young. A new partner IS generally found on the succeedino- day· but M Th . h o ' r. o~pson gives t e case of one being replaced on the evemng ?f the same day. Even after the eggs are h~tched, If one of the old birds is destroyed a mate will often be found; this occurred after an interval o~ .two days, i~ a case recently observed by one of Su J. Lubbock s keepers.5 The first and most obvious • 5 • On, m.agpies: .Jcnn?r, in 'Phil. 'l'mnsact.' 1821, p. 21. Mne il; Iay, H1st. B~·ttJ~lt Bmls,' vol. i. p. 570. Thompson, in 'Annals :ncl ug. of Nat. Htst. vol. viii. 1812, p. 491. |