XESTS A.VD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRPS. 



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A most remarkable instance, and one fortunate for myself, happened 

 tlio following season. Mr. Clark went M\Uton Bird ( Piiffinux ffiniirDKtri" ) 

 egging on Phillip Island, when it occurred to him to visit the mainland 

 again in the neigh hoiu'hood of his Satin Bird's ne.st of the previous season. 

 The result was that he foiuid another pair of eggs, which arc now in my 

 collection. 



I never enjoyed the opportunity of taking a nest of the Satin Bird, 

 but at Christmas-tide, 1884, I saw a perfect bower on the north shore of 

 Lake King, Gippsland. The stnicturc wa.s situated in a cleared space 

 upon the ground, amongst some bracken in open forest. The cleared 

 space was twenty-six inches across, the bower or avenue being in the 

 centre of this space. The two parallel tapering walls of twigs were about 

 twelve inches high, by a breadth of ten inches, and were six inches apart. 

 The walls were somewhat ciurved, archiug towards the top. The chief 

 decorations within the bower, and round about, were the gay feathers 

 of the Crimson Parrakeet ( P/n/i/rcrcit.^ e/r(/ti)ix ).* 



It is stated that the first bower of the Satin Bird that Gould saw wa.s 

 in the Svdnej' Museum. He succeeded in conveying it to England. 

 The illustration I have given is from a picture by Mr. D. Le Souiif, taken 

 at Mallacoota Inlet. 



Tlie Satin Bird's eggs which Dr. Ramsav described in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society (1875) were of an abnormal type, if referable to 

 that bird at all, hence his excuse for redescribing (and rightly so) two well- 

 authenticated sets collected by Mr. Ralph Hargi-ave, at Wattamola, New 

 South Wales. 



Dr. A. E. Cox, Sydney, informed me that about the middle of October, 

 1876, at Mittagong, New South Wales, he found a nest of the Satin Bird 

 situated on the top of a tea-tree I Mfloh'iira ) stump, containing two eggs 

 which were nearly incubated. 



From Mr. K. Broadbcnt's interesting articles on the " Cardwell Birds," 

 I take this extract: — "The Satin Bower Bird f Pli/nnnrln/iirlnis vi<ihireus) 

 was observed at the Herbert River Gorge, and quite commonly in the 

 Herbei-ton scnibs. In the latter locality it occurred in company with the 

 Spotted Cat Bird ( JHurcediis macvlosusj, and the Tooth-billed Bower 

 Bird (Tfctiiniiriux di-iitirn'.trii ). and Newton's Bower Bird ( Frinnodura 

 newtoniana ) \ in fact, I have seen all these four species feeding in the 

 same tree. These Satin Birds, as they are more popularly designated, 

 may be often met with diuing the month of May in the open, along the 

 edges of the sciiibs, feeding upon the tops of young ferns. I have seen 

 flocks of two hundred or more, composed in large proportions of plain- 

 colomed mottled birds, with about ten or twelve dark or deel' 

 blue-coloured individuals amongst them." 



Regarding tliis Bower Bird in Southern Queensland. I take from 

 Mr. Hermann Lau's MS. the following; — 



" Satin Bird. — The sea^coast scrubs are its haunts. Now and again it 

 comes out to the open forest to feed upon the hemes of the mistletoe, 



• Mr. I. W. De Lany informs me that he has only noticed blue feathers at 

 bowers. His wife, by way of experiment, put out several pieces of coloured wools 

 near the house, and only the blue ones were taken to the bower 



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