The Descent of Man

tain Stokes has described the habits and "playhouses"
of another species, the Great Bowerbird,
which was seen "amusing itself by flying
backwards and forwards, taking a shell alternately
from each side, and carrying it through the
archway in its mouth." These curious structures,
formed solely as halls of assemblage, 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.
DECORATION.
I 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-