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NATURAL HISTORY. 



Family III. . . Sturnidse. (Lat. Sturnus, a Starling. Starling kind.) 

 Sub-family a, . Ptilonorhynchtnce. 



PTILONOEHYNCUS. (Gr. UTI^OV, a feather; fivyx<;, a beak.) 



Sericeus (Lat. silky), the Satin Bower-Bird. 



of a pipe, &c. that may have been accidentally dropped in the 

 brush. I, myself, found at the entrance of one of these 

 a small neatly worked stone tomahawk, of an inch and a half 

 in length, together with some slips of blue cotton rags, which 

 the birds had doubtless picked up at a deserted encampment 

 of the natives. For what purpose these curious bowers are 

 made, is not yet, perhaps, fully understood : they are certainly 

 not used as a nest, but as a place of resort for many individuals 

 of both sexes, which, when there assembled, run through and 

 around the bower in a sportive and playful manner, and that 

 so frequently, that it is seldom entirely deserted." 



