38 PTILOSORIIYSCIIID.K. 



common to both sexes, the female does not call like the male. I have liad for some time a fine 

 old male in confinement that was formerly in the possession of Mr. Hugh Thomson for two years 

 prior to his giving it to me, and it still imitates tiie notes of manv species frecjuenting its previous 

 haunts. This bird was captured while feasting upon mulberries in a garden at Burrier, in the 

 Shoalhaven District, on the 26th December, 1896. .\t that time it was in the parti-coloured 

 greenish-grey and purjilish-black plumage of the immature male. Further progress towards 

 maturity was made during the next moult in tlie following March and .\prii, but its fully adult 

 purplish-black male plumage was not assumed until it had again moulted, twelve months later. 

 In the same locality Mr. Thomson, at the latter end of December, 1899, succeeded in capturing 

 two young ones that were just able to flutter out of a nest, built in an Acacia. The female used 

 to visit and feed them constantly while they were kept in a cage in the garden, dropping an 

 insect or a berry sometimes a few feet away, and calling and trying to allure them from their 

 captivity. On placing the cage in a room with the window left open, the female entered and 

 was secured; but although supplied with the same kind of food, she was deaf to the entreaties 

 of her hungry brood, and eventually managed to escape. One of the yt>ung ones died, and Mr. 

 Thomson gave me the other, which proved to be a female, and is now about two years 

 old. When the cage of the old male is placed opposite to and almost touching that of the 

 female, the former goes through all the antics of this species usually performed at the bower. 

 As I write, he is with lowered head, pufl'ed out body feathers, and slightly spread wings, paying 

 court to the female, and uttering his peculiar machinery-working-like notes. This is followed 

 by a perfect imitation either of the notes of Lewin's Honey-eater, Pennant's Parrakeet, Yellow- 

 tailed Black Cockatoo, Pied Crow-shrike, or Lyre-bird, or the low sweet notes of a flock of 

 Acanthiza. He is also a good ventriloquist, and I have often been misled by him, thinking that 

 the notes proceeded from birds in the bush opposite to the house. Fre(]UL'ntlv thev are uttered 

 while he has a stone, feather, flower, or twig in his bill, and he is quietly hopping apparently 

 unconcerned about the cage. The mimicry begins, as a rule, immediately after his own peculiar 

 notes are uttered, and seldom does he imitate the notes of more than one species without 

 ceasing. The notes he mimics to absolute perfection are those of ihe White-throated Tree-creeper, 

 the shrill "pink, pink, pink," being as natural as if the latter bird were caged. He usually calls 

 early in the morning in the spring and summer months, and seldom unless placed opposite the 

 cage of the female, or before a mirror: in autunm and winter he is almost silent. 



Bananas form the principal portion of the food of this pair of birds, alternated with 

 berries of the ink-weed, milk-thistles, cake, and soft biscuits of any kind. They are extremely 

 fond of green peas (which they are adepts in shelling), fruit and thistles, and a turf of freshly- 

 cut sweet green grass. Occasionally their diet is varied with finely chopped meat, or insects; 

 the latter they carefully crush to pieces before attempting to swallow them. The old male 

 is very tame, and will feed out of my hand, but the female is rather shy. Both bathe 

 frequently, especially in the summer months. These birds have very powerful bills, and all 

 objects within reach on the ground, and small enough to enter, are drawn by them into their 

 cages. The female is somewhat mischievous, and delights in taking in her bill a tea-cup full of 

 water, or bread and milk, and turning it over almost as soon as it is placed in the cage. When 

 wishing to be fed, she makes a noise by taking the cup in her bill and dropping it about from 

 one end of the cage to the other. 



The peculiar habit of the family Ptilonorhynchidje in forming bowers or play-grounds was 

 made known by the late Mr. Gould, from an example first brought under his notice in the 

 .\ustralian Museum, Sydney, during his visit to .\ustralia in 1838-9. It was the work of the 

 present species, and was presented to the Trustees by Mr. Charles Coxen, of Brisbane. So 

 interested was Mr. Gould in this structure, that he determined on visiting the haunts of the 

 Satin Bower-bird, and was successful in finding several of their bowers in the brushes of the 



