5° 



BOWER-BIRD 



radiating from the central sujiport, which is covered with a conical 

 mass of moss, and sheltering a gallery round it. One side of this 

 hut is left open, and in front of it is arranged a bed of verdant 

 moss, bedecked with blossoms and berries of the brightest colours. 

 As these ornaments wither they are removed to a heap behind 

 the hut, and replaced by others that are fresh. The hut is 

 circular, and some three feet in diameter, and the mossy lawn in 



'G ardent" of Ajiblyorn-is. 

 (After Beccari. From TUt Gardeners' Chronicle, N.S., vol. ix. p. 333.) 



front of it of nearly twice that expanse. Each hut and garden are, 

 it is believed, though not known, the work of a single pair of 

 birds, or perhaps of the male only ; and it may be observed that 

 this species, as its trivial name implies, is wholly inornate in 

 plumage.^ Not less remarkable is the more recently described 

 ^ Another species referred to the same genus, A. suhalaris, the female of 

 which was originally described by Mr. Sharpe {Journ. Linn. Soc. xvii. p. 40) 

 as being still more dingy, turned out to have the male embellished with a 

 wonderful crest of reddish-orange (Fiusch and Meyer, Zcitschr. f. cjcs. Orn. 1885, 

 p. 390, tab. xxii.). 



