234 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS 



seems as though these gifted, if plain-looking 

 birds sought by absolutely artificial means to 

 add to their attractiveness. Certainly they 

 exhibit an aesthetic taste for the beautiful im- 

 measurably greater and more refined than that 

 of the Australian aborigines themselves, and an 

 appreciation of beauty for its own sake which 

 can only find its parallel amongst the most 

 highly civilised races of mankind. These bowers, 

 avenues, or runs vary a good deal in shape and 

 material amongst the several species, but they are 

 all constructed for a similar purpose, and have 

 nothing whatever to do with the nest. Some 

 of these bowers are made of twigs, and are 

 decorated with feathers, shells, bones, and leaves ; 

 and in the collection of these materials the birds 

 must expend a very great amount of labour. 

 In the bower of the Spotted Bower Bird the 

 decorations are very profuse, and little paths 

 strewn with stones diverge from the mouth of 

 the bower. The most wonderful bower of 

 all is that made by the Gardener Bower Bird. 

 This species builds an elaborate circular hut- 

 like structure at the foot of some large tree, 

 and about two feet high and three feet in 

 diameter. It is formed of the stems of orchids, 

 which radiate and slope to the ground from a 



