19-^ 



NESTS A.VD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



a height vai-ying from about ten to thirty feet from the ground. Dimensions 

 over all, diameter 7 or 8 inches by 5 inches in depth. (See illustration.) 



Efjgs. — Clutch, two to three ; shape true oval ; shell moderately fine 

 in texture ; surface glossy ; coloiu- varies from dark-cream to dirty-yellow, 

 irregularly blotched and spotted with umber, ciuuamon-brown, and a few 

 purplish-gi-ey markings. In some specimens the blotches are very bold, 

 with the markmgs under the surface of the shell of a bluish-black shade. 

 Occasionally there is a type with a lighter or paler coloured gi'ouud and 

 smaller-sized marldugs Others again have the markings more in the fonn 

 of hieroglvphics. Dimensions in inches of a typical clutch : (1) 176 x 119, 

 (2) 1-74 xM7. (riate 9.) 



Except for their larger size, the eggs in colour and character much 

 resemble those of the Onole (Mimeta viridis). 



Observations. — The Satin Bower Bird — the male especially beautiful 

 by reason of his lustrous blue-black coat and lovely \'ioIet eyes — is an 

 inhabitant of the forests, more particularly of the coastal region, of 

 Eastern Australia, from Northern Queensland down to the Cape Otway 

 forest, Victoria. 



Some seasons Satin Bii'ds are very destructive in the gardens and 

 orchards, eating clover, especially the flowers, EngUsh grass, cabbages down 

 to the very root, and fruit. Tlie late W. B. Bailey, Pimpama Nurseries, 

 South Queensland, infomied me of an instance in which he had about 

 three acres of mandarin oranges stripped in a week. Tlie birds are also 

 fond of sweet potato tubcr.s. I noticed at Mr. Bailey's residence a veiy 

 handsome male bird wliich he had in captivity. It was in its youthful 

 coat of mottled-green when he first obtained it. It is interesting to learn 

 that this bird did not don its full livery of blue-bla«k till the fourth year.* 

 Tlie bu'd was an excellent mimic, could talk, and imitate well the mewing 

 of a cat. 



It is somewhat remarkable that, notwithstanding the Satin Birds are 

 plentiful locally, the eggs ai-e exceedingly i-are in collections. On the 

 23rd November, 1883, my friend Mr. Lindsay Clark found, near the 

 Bass River, Western Port, a nest of the Satin Bird containing a rare 

 prize — a pair of fresh eggs. Mr. Clark described the nest as being placed 

 about twelve feet from the groimd, in a scrubby bush, loosely constructed 

 of twigs, &c., and lined with leaves ; on being removed from its position 

 it fell to pieces. 



* Since this statement was published in the " Proceedings of the Royal Physical 

 Society" (Edinburgh), Mr A. A. C. Le Souef, Director of the Zoological Gardens, 

 Melbourne, has kindly favoured me with the following : — " I think this particular bird 

 must have been of mature years when Mr. Bailey first got it, as many years ago I caged 

 a number (at least a dozen) of these birds at the gardens here, young green birds, 

 caught at Gembrook, and it was only after the expiration of nearly eight years they 

 began to change colour I think four or five birds put on the beautiful blue-black 

 plumage, and in a year or two died oft. It is, therefore, evident that the birds only 

 come to their full plumage in old age, and that accounts for the fact that in a flock 

 of say one hundred birds, which we often used to see at Gembrook. some years ago, 

 there would be only a very few. not half-a-dozen black ones among them Thev die 

 off shortly after the change." 



