BO WER-BIRD 49 



are used b}^ the birds as a playing-house or ' run,' as it is termed, 

 and are used by the males to attract the females. The ' run ' of the 

 Satin-bird is much smaller, being less than one foot in length, and 

 moreover differs fi'om that just described in being decorated with 

 the highly-coloured feathers of the Parrot-tribe ; the Chlamydera, on 

 the other hand, collects around its 'run' a quantity of stones, shells, 

 bleached bones, etc. ; they are also strewed down the centre within." 



This statement, marvellous as it seemed, has been proved by 

 many subsequent observers to be strictly true, and it must be 

 borne in mind that these structures,^ each of which as above 

 described he next year (1 Sept. 1841) figured {B. Austral, iv. 

 pis. 8, 10), have nothing to do with nests of the birds — indeed, 

 their mode of nidification, which was not made known until some 

 years later, presents no extraordinary feature. Moreover, the birds 

 will build their "bowers " in confinement, and therein disport them- 

 selves, as has been repeatedly shewn in the Zoological Gardens ^ by 

 the Satiu-bird last mentioned, Ptilarhynchus violaceus. Subsequently 

 it was found that the Eegent-bird, Sericuhis melinus, a species long 

 before known, had the habit of making a " bower " of similar kind, 

 though built, so to speak, in another style of architecture, and having 

 for its chief decoration the shells of a small species of Helix. 



The account of these curious birds which may be most 

 conveniently consulted is that in Gould's Handbook to the Birds of 

 Australia (i. pp. 441-461), published in 1865; but since that time 

 discoveries still more wonderful have been made. A bird of New 

 Guinea, originally referred to the genus Ptilorhynchus, but noAv 

 recognized as Amblyornis inornatiis, has been found by Sign. Beccari 

 to present not only a modification of bower-building, but an 

 appreciation of beauty perhaps unparalleled in the animal world. 

 His interesting observations (Annali del Mus. Civ. de Storia Nat. 

 di Genova, ix. pp. 382-400, tav. viii.) shew that this species, which 

 he not inaptly calls the "Gardener" (Gjardiniere), builds at the foot 

 of a small tree a kind of hut or cabin (capanna) some two feet in 

 height, roofed with orchid-stems that slope to the ground, regularly 



^ Gould brought home with him at least two examples, which he gave to the 

 British Museum. There is no reason to suppose that this exti-aordinary habit 

 had been described before the date above given, or that the name "Bower-bird" 

 had been previously used, and yet we find Trelawny in his Memoirs of Shelley, 

 published in 1878, referring to himself (i. p. 136) as saying, in a conversation not 

 later than 1822, "You two have built your nest after the fashion of the Aus- 

 tralian bower-birds " ! 



- The ordinary visitor to these gardens seems to regard the structures of the 

 Bower-birds without any intelligent interest. Pie perhaps supposes that they are 

 the handiwork of one or other of the keepers. From my own long connexion 

 with the Zoological Society, I think I am able to state that neither in this nor any- 

 thing else of the kind is any deception practised. The Bower-birds are supplied 

 with materials, and that is all. 



