The structures which we have been here considering are of so extraordinary a nature, that they more arrest our attention than do those special activities relating to courtship and matrimony, for the due performance of which the birds have erected them. With all other species, however, in which these rites are a special feature, the exact converse is the case; or, rather, whilst a special place is sought out for their indulgence, no structure in connection with them is made. In some few cases, however, we perhaps see the beginnings of this. The male argus pheasant, for instance, displays before the hen in a little open space in the jungle, to which, in the breeding season, he day after day repairs, and though he builds nothing, he is most assiduous in keeping this space clear and clean, so that if a leaf or a twig, or anything else, gets into it, he takes it up and drops it outside. So pronounced, indeed, is this habit, that the Malays have learnt to take advantage of it to the birds’ destruction. They cut off a long shaving from the stem of a bamboo, and tie one end of it to a peg, which they drive into the ground in the centre of the clearing. Finding that an ordinary pull will not remove the untidy-looking thing, the irritated bird at length seizes it with his bill by the free end, and twisting his neck two or three times about it, makes a violent spring backwards, with the result that he cuts his throat, for the thin edges of the bamboo are almost as sharp as a razor. The display, as it is called, of the argus pheasant is a most interesting thing to see. The secondary quill feathers of the male are immensely developed, and very beautifully and æsthetically ornamented with a row of circular spots, so finely shaded that they stand out in perspective, like a real ball, as though drawn by a clever artist. Under ordinary circumstances these lovely ornaments are hidden, but when the wings are expanded they make, together, a great circular shield, which is thickly studded with them; and this starry firmament the male, when he wishes to make an impression, offers suddenly and with _empressement_ to the gaze of the female. The lower feathers meet together in front of the bird’s head, so that, in order to judge of the effect he is making, he has to thrust it between two of them, and thus peep out at the hen. At the same time he fans his tail and elevates it, so that the two very broad and very long plumes which it contains nod above the soft splendour of the wings. To see several of these magnificent birds—as large almost, at least in their then appearance, as peacocks—contending thus for the favours of the female, must be a most magnificent sight, to be excelled only, perhaps, by the similar rivalry of peacocks themselves in some tiger-haunted jungle of India. Both these birds belong to a family which is famous for displays of this sort. They are striking enough in our own pheasant, which, however, comes originally from the East, and rise to a