56 PTILONORHVVCHID.i;. 



western side of the Sea-view Range; by Mr. J. Beveridge, at Croydon; and by Mr. K. 

 Broadbent, at Normanton. Mr. Bertie L. Jardine also informs me that it is a permanent 

 resident in the neighbourhood of the Ducie River, which is about one hundred and forty miles 

 down the western side of the Cape York Peninsula. I have ne\-er seen any ChhvnydodcviT from 

 the western shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and it would be interesting to learn where the 

 north-eastern and north-western races of the Great Bower-bird meet. 



Regarding this species, the late Mr. W. S. Day, who travelled through the principal 

 mining districts of North Queensland, wrote to me as follows : — " 1 found C. orieiitalis fairly 

 common all the way from Charters Towers to Croydon and Normanton, and from the latter 

 locality south and west to Cloncurry, and on towards Winton. These birds had a perfect craze 

 for bones. While camped on the Leichhardt Ri\er I used to shoot a number of pigeons for 

 the pot. When eating them the Bower-birds would watch me from the trees, and the moment 

 I threw the bones away the birds would descend to the ground, pick them up, and carry 

 them away to their bowers. Most of the bowers I examined had a (juantity of small bones of 

 mammals heaped up near the entrance, and around them as a rule a number of shells and a 

 few coloured bits of stone. In one bower I found a very bright specimen of gold embedded in 

 glistening white quartz, and when in the opal country I used frequently to find pieces of 

 precious opal in and around them. At a bower near a mining camp 1 found two tin tea-spoons, 

 portions of a steel walch-chain, a bright sixpence, eleven tin tobacco-tags, and a few horse-shoe 

 nails. The miners do not like these birds, as they pilfer any small bright articles lying about 

 the camp to ornament their bowers; also for the depredations they connnit in tiieir gardens, 

 especially among tomatoes." 



M. Etable, who has spent many seasons trapping in the Gulf District and northern 

 portions of Central Queensland, informs me that near Croydon these birds are very tame and 

 freely enter the tents of the miners and charcoal-burners, who make great pets of them and will 

 not allow them to be molested. Frequently he saw their bowers, many miles from any habita- 

 tion, which were bedecked with articles of domestic use, such as blades of penknives, small 

 spoons, buttons, etc., in addition to the usual collection of bones and shells made in llie bush. 



For an opportunity of first examining the nest and eggs of this species, I was indebted to 

 Mr. Charles French, F.L.S., who kindly placed in my hands for the purposes of describing 

 and figuring a set of these eggs from his son's collection, and who later on presented the 

 nest from which they were taken to the Trustees of the Australian Museum. 



The nest, which is liere figured, is a very primitive and nearly flat structure, placed at the 

 junction of a forked horizontal branch, and held in position by several tliinner upright brandies. 

 It is externally constructed of very thin sticks, loosely interlaced, and is lined inside, where 

 there is a saucer-shaped depression, with fine twigs. In general appearance it resembles very 

 much some nests of Podaygus strigoides, or a large one of Phaps chalcoptera, and averages externally 

 eleven inches and a half in diameter, the egg-cavity measuring six inches. The nests are 

 usually built in gum, apple, or tea-trees at an height from twelve to fifteen feet from the 

 ground. One or two eggs are laid for a sitting. Of those in Mr. Charles French, Junr.'s 

 collection — who has kindly lent them for figuring (Plate B. II., Figures 10 and 12) — one 

 is of a faint greenish-grey ground colour, with bold linear markings and numerous wavy thread- 

 like lines of different shades of umber-brown and purplish-grey, crossing and re-crossing each 

 other at different angles, and intermingled with curved wavy lines and faint irregular-shaped 

 smears. These markings are equally distributed over the surface of the shell, except on the 

 thicker end, where on one side there are only a few hair-like streaks. Many curious forms are 

 assumed by these labyrinthine markings, one towards the centre of the shell resembling a man's 



• Vict.^at., Vol.TtUi., p. 104 (1895). 



