^2 PTILONORHYJICHID.E. 



near Otford and Bulli, on the southern boundary of the county of Cumberland. In the latter 

 localities the Cat-bird, Satin Bower-bird, and other brush frequenting species are found, but 

 not the Regent Bower-bird. 



To the southern limit of its range, in the neighbourhood of Ourimbah and Gosford, this 

 species is a partial migrant ; large flocks of females and young males appearing when there is a 

 plentiful supply of wild fruits and berries, about the middle of July, and which are followed by 

 straggling flocks of fully adult males three or four weeks later. At the same season the 

 Cat-birds and Satin Bower-birds are plentiful in these brushes, and may be frequently seen in 

 the same tree in company with the Regent Bower-birds. During the winter months both sexes 

 of the latter species may be easily obtained just about daylight if one is stationed beneath one 

 of their feeding-trees. In the spring the greater number either leave the district, or paired, are 

 dispersed through the dense brush for the purposes of breeding. Owing to the undergrowth 

 and tangled masses of Bramble (Riibus moorei), known in the Gosford and lllawarra Districts as 

 the " Bush Lawyer," it is almost impossible for one to explore these secure haunts, except by 

 way of the few tracks made by the timber getters, although of recent years the undergrowth 

 has been gradually cleared away in the vicinity of Ourimbah. At the end of November I 

 saw- only a few isolated adult males, and they were extremely shy, keeping as a rule to the tops 

 of the tallest timber, and flying away on my approaching near the tree they were in. Evidently 

 the females were sitting, for I saw the males day after day in the same place on the edge of the 

 brush, and being about a quarter of a mile away from one another. That many pairs remain 

 to breed is proved by my finding at Ourimbah a nest on the 9th November, igoi, and under- 

 neath it the half shell of an unusually well marked egg, and two days later similar evidence 

 under another tree fifty yards away. Fledgelings were also obtamed in tlie same district in 

 January. In the autunni they prol)ably retire north again, for only a few straggling individuals 

 are seen at the end of .Vpril, although I once saw at the end of May a young male with an admixture 

 of black and yellow feathers with the brown, which had been shot on the previous day at Gosford. 



During a collecting trip to the liellinger River, undertaken by Mr. R. Grant on behalf of 

 the Trustees of the Australian Museum in June, 1892, these birds were not met with until the 

 beginning of July, when large flocks of females and young males made their appearance, the 

 males not arriving until the end of .\ugust. 



Mr. J. A. Thorpe informs me that near Brisbane these birds were common in the scrubs 

 on the river three miles above the town in 1S65. While living there, two brothers he knew 

 went out especially to secure the adult males. One obtained from a single giant fig-tree 

 seventeen beautiful old males; the other shot twenty-three from another fig-tree in a different 

 part of the scrub. It was in these scrubs that the bower-building habit of this species was 

 first discovered by Mr. Waller, of Brisbane, and the fact was recorded by the late Mr. Charles 

 Coxen at a meeting of the Queensland Philosophical Society in 1864. From his account the 

 following extracts are made" : — "The bower of the Regent-bird differs from the Satin-bird's in 

 being less dome-shaped, straighter in the sides, platform much less, being only ten inches by 

 ten, but thicker in proportion to its area, twigs smaller and not so arched, and the inside 

 of the bower smaller ; indeed I believe too small to admit an adult Satin-bird without 

 injury to its architecture. The decorations are uniform, consisting only of a small species 

 of Helix, herein forming a marked distinction from the Satin-bird. The ground around 

 the bower was clear of leaves for some twelve or eighteen inches, and had the appearance of 

 having been swept. The structure w-as alike at both ends, but the part designated as the front 

 was more easy of approach and had the principal decorations, the approach at the back being 

 I more closed by scrub." 



• Handbk. Bds. Austr.. Vol. i., pp. 459 - 460 (1865). 



