BOWER-BIRDS. 517 



constructed with such wonderful skill and taste, that we are forced to recognize the 

 intellect manifested by them as only inferior to that of man in degree, but not in 

 kind. Dr. Sclater, in speaking of the birds of this species in the Zoological Gardens 

 in London, says as follows: "Long before the construction of their nest, and inde- 

 pendently of it, these birds form with twigs, skilfully put together and firmly planted 

 in a platform of various materials, an arbor-like gallery of uncertain length in which 

 they amuse themselves with the most active glee. They pursue each other through 

 it ; they make attitudes to each other, the males setting their feathers in the most 

 grotesque manner, and making as many bows as a cavalier in a minuet. The archi- 

 tecture of the bower is excessively tasteful, and the ornamentation of the platform 

 on which it stands is an object of constant solicitude to the birds. Scarcely a day 

 passes without some fresh arrangement of the shells, feathers, bones, and other decora- 

 tive materials, which they bring from long distances in the bush for this purpose. 

 With the same object they immediately appropriate every suitable fragment placed 

 within their reach when in confinement." 



Still larger and more elaborate are the avenue-like " play-houses " of the Chlamy- 

 dodera. Accompanying a bower of C. nuchcdis now in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, in Cambridge, we learn, " were more than half a peck of the decorations 

 with which the builders had adorned their place of assembly. These consisted prin- 

 cipally of a large white univalve ; the shell of a large land-snail, of which there were 

 in all about four hundred ; shining stones, principally flint-stones and agates ; bright- 

 colored seed vessels and pods; bleached bones of small quadrupeds, and other objects 

 of interest." 



But all these structures are completely overshadowed by the achievements of 

 Amblyomis inornate^ a plain rufous-colored bird, not larger than our American robin, 

 and only recently discovered in New Guinea by the Dutch traveler and naturalist, 

 Count Rosenberg. From an abstract of Dr. O. Beccari's account of the gardener-bird 

 in the Arfak Mountains, on the western peninsula of New Guinea, in 1875, we make 

 the following selection : "He had just shot a small marsupial as it was running up 

 the trunk of a large tree, when, turning round in close proximity to the path, he 

 found himself in front of a piece of workmanship more lovely than the ingenuity of 

 any animal had ever before been known to construct. It was a cabin in miniature in 

 the midst of a miniature meadow studded with flowers. Contenting himself for the 



j 



moment with a brief examination of this marvel, he enjoined his hunters not to dis- 

 turb it. 



" After several days spent at Hatam in the preservation of specimens, at last, one 

 morning, his crayon and box of colors in hand, he set out towards the habitation of 

 the Amblyomis, and immediately applied himself to the task of making a sketch. At 

 the time of his visit the proprietors were not at home, nor was he afterward able to 

 ascertain with any certainty whether any cabin was frequented by a single pair, or by 

 more; whether by more males than females, or the reverse; whether the males alone 

 construct the huts, or whether the females aid in the work, or how far they may be 

 the work of several individuals. That these cabins arc used season after season is 

 made probable from the fact that they arc constantly being renewed and embellished. 



"This bird selects for its hut and garden a spot on a level with the plain, having 

 in its centre a small shrub, with a trunk about the height and size of a small walking- 

 stick. Around the base of this central support, it constructs, of different mosses, a 

 sort of cone about a span in diameter. This cone o moss seems to strengthen the 



