XEsrS AXD EuGS OF AUSlkAU.-i.\ BIRDS. 



213 



said ' one of the three handsomest birds in Australia.' This rediscovery 

 on my piu't was announced in an oihcial commiuiication, dated £roiu 

 Horbertou, 3Uth March, 18S9. 



" At the conmiencement of FebruiU'y of the same year, Mr. A. Meston, 

 duiing his llrst exploration of Moimt Belleuden-lver, prociu'ed a single 

 specimen of a very handsome bird, , which, at its receipt at the Museum 

 on the 25th Mai'ch, wiis pronounced to be a new bii-d, and, as such, 

 received the name of Meston's Bower Bird (Ctirymbtcula metituiii); my 

 discovery that it was only the full-pUuuaged male of Newton's Bower Bii'd 

 ( Prionudura newtoniana), ;uid the specimens and written observations 

 wliich 1 forwarded in support of this conclusion, not having been then 

 received in Brisbane. 



" These observations, as some others due to Mr. Meston, are to be 

 found in a paper entitled, ' A Further Account of rrionndura newtuniana,' 

 by C. W. de Vis, contained in the sixth volume of the ' Proceedings ' of 

 our Royal Society, ;md may be fittingly quoted on this occasion : — 

 ' Prionodura is emphatically a Bower Bird. Both its observers in nature 

 met with its bowers repeatedly, and agree in representing them to be of 

 unusual size and stmcture. From their notes and sketches it would 

 appear that the bower is usually built on the gi-ound, between two trees, 

 or between a tree and a bush. It is coiistnictod of small sticks and twigs. 

 These arc piled up almost horizontally round one of the trees in the form 

 of a pyramid, which rises to a height vai-ying from four feet to six feet. 

 A similar' pile of inferior height — about eighteen inches — is then built 

 aroimd the foot of the other tree. The intervening space is arched over 

 with stems of cUmbing plants, the piles are decorated with white moss, 

 and the arch with similar moss, mingled with clusters of green fruit 

 resembhng wild grapes. Through and over the covered run play the 

 birds, young and old, of both sexes. A still more interesting and 

 characteristic featiu'e in the play-gi'ound of this bird remains. The com- 

 pletion of the massive bower so laboriously obtained is not sufficient to 

 arrest the arcliitectiu-al impulse. Scattered immediately around is a 

 number of dwarf, hut^like structiu-cs — gunyahs they are called by 

 Broadbent, who says he found five of them in a space of ten feet diameter, 

 and observes that they give the spot exactly the appearance of a miniature 

 blacks' camp! These seem to be built by bending towards each other 

 strong stems of standing grass, and capping them with a horizontal thatch 

 of Ught twigs. In and around the gunyahs, and from one to another, 

 the bu-ds in their play puisue each other to their hearts' content.' " 



Mr. Broadbent mentions that the male Golden Bower Bird is a 

 splenthd mocker, imitating all the bii'ds of his locahty, as well as the 

 croaking noise of tree-frogs. The note of the female resembles that of the 

 Queensland Cat Bird ( JUliircedus) in a sharper and shriller key. 



Mr. Broadbent has thoughtfully sent me his original sketches of various 

 playing-places of the Golden Bower Bird (Prionodura newtoniana), 

 which he made when he accompanied Mr. Meston's scientific 

 expedition to Bellenden-Ker, in 1889, and when additional specimens of 

 the beautiful birds themselves were obtained. 



Sketch 1. — Bower made of small sticks, decorated with long white 



