2 22 From Magazines, &c. [and^ April 



then being brown, the bird, if he had Hved, would not have come 

 into colour until this autumn, unless twelve months of doubtful 

 health hindered the proper development of colour. In the latter 

 case one might have supposed that at any rate some of the tail 

 feathers would have shown signs of black. I think it will be 

 moderately safe to say that in this country the male Regent 

 does not obtain full feather until he is about four years old, or 

 possibly not until he is rising five." 



The ordinary bowers of Regent-Birds, which have been 

 described and photographed, are for the purpose of the males 

 "showing off" before the females. Mr. Phillips informs us that 

 the females construct different bovvers, a trait in the character of 

 this remarkable species that has apparently escaped the notice 

 of field observers in Australia. " These love parlours, each one 

 built by a female for her sole use, rather in the open and not far 

 apart, and each most jealously guarded by its fair owner, were of 

 the shape of a horseshoe magnet but with the sides equidistant 

 throughout their entire length, open only at one end, and inside 

 of about the same length and breadth as the bird, the top of the 

 barricade being about on a level with the back of the squatting 

 female, the sticks, woven together, being laid flat, none upright. 

 The female would enter and squat in her love- parlour, the tail 

 remaining towards the entrance, whilst a male, with every 

 imaginable and unimaginable contortion, accompanied by a 

 continuous discharge of (vocal) firearms, would make rushes and 

 furious (feigned) assaults on the front of the breastwork, the 

 female sitting in a lump and not moving a muscle. Every now 

 and again, however, the male would slyly work round to the rear 

 and tweak the tip of the female's tail. This advance, at any time 

 perhaps but the very early morning, or at any rate while I was 

 looking on, was not considered correct, and the female would 

 slowly turn her head with what we will suppose was an icy look 

 of grave disapproval. The second female, as I may call her (in 

 the autumn of 1904), was the most energetic, and her fortress 

 became a really formidable structure, the parapet being raised 

 pari passu with the additions to the platform." 



Mr. Phillips's crowning success was in getting his Regents to 

 breed. The exact dates on which the females commenced to sit 

 could not be ascertained, but the period of incubation is pro- 

 visionally stated as 19-20 days. The female hatched the young 

 and undertook the entire work of providing food for them — one 

 reason, perhaps, why she is, as a rule, larger and more powerful 

 than the male, while the evidence of the aviary points to the 

 male being a polygamist, At first he mounted guard close to 

 the nest of the sitting female, but before long he took up 

 entirely with a second mate. The first female hatched two 

 young, one of which was reared, but the second appeared to 

 have unfortunately succumbed to climatic conditions. 



