BRACHIAL ARTERY— BRAIN 51 



" bower " of Prionodura, a genus of which the male, like the Regent- 

 bird, is conspicuous for his bright orange coloration. This 

 structure is said by Mr. Devis (Trans. Ruij. Soc. Queensland, 14 June 

 1889) to be piled up almost horizontally round the base of a tree 

 to the height of from -4 to 6 feet, and around it are a number of 

 hut-like fabrics, having the look of a dwarfed native camp. Allied 

 to the forms already named are two others, Scenopceus and 

 Ailuroedus, which, though not apparently building " bowers," yet 

 clear a space of ground some 8 or 9 feet in diameter, on which to 

 display themselves, ornamenting it "with tufts and little heaps of 

 gaily tinted leaves and j'^oung shoots " (Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1875, p. 592). The former of them, which, according to Mr. Lum- 

 holtz (Among Cannibals, pp. 139, 140), covers a space of about a 

 square yard with large fresh leaves neatly laid, and removes 

 them as they decay, inhabits Queensland, and to the latter belongs 

 the " Cat-bird," so well known to Australians from its loud, harsh, 

 and extraoi'dinary cries. 



By most systematists these birds are placed among the Para- 

 diseidie (B[rd-of-Paradise) ; but in 

 the British Museum Catalogue of 

 Birds (vi. pp. 380-396) they are 

 to be found in the "limbo large 

 and broad" of Timeliidic — though 

 allowed the rank of a subfamily 

 " Ptilonorhynchinx," the name being 

 taken from the feathered and not 

 the bare (as might from its ety- Ptilorhynchus violaceus. 



1 1 1 J. i\ T (After Swainson.) 



mology liave been expected) condi- 

 tion of the base of the bill shewn in the figure of that part in the 

 Satin-bird. 



BRACHIAL ARTERY, see Vascular System -. BRACHIAL 

 PLEXUS, see Nervous System. 



PEA IN, the part of the Central Nervous System which is 

 enclosed by the cranium, and in Birds consists of three principal 

 divisions, named after their position — Hind- Mid- and Forebrain. 

 The hindbrain is composed of the medulla oblongata, the direct and 

 comparatively little modified continuation of the spinal cord, and of 

 the cerebellum, these two parts being connected Avith each other 

 by the pedunculi or crura cerebelli. The midbrain contains the 

 peduncles of the great or forebrain, and the cortex or rind of the 

 optic lobes. The forebrain is subdivided into the thalamencephalon 

 and into the cerebral hemispheres. The ventral parts of the 

 thalamencephalon form the hypophysis and the chiasma or 

 crossing of the optic nerves, the lateral parts contain the inner 

 portions of the optic lobes, which are partly homologous with 



