1 92 1.] Ifcstcrii.AustnilJa)/ Birds. 77 



it might breed, but I saw no more of it, or any others, during 

 the eleven years that I afterwards lived in that district. 



After thirteen years' absence, I was again at the same 

 part of the ranges where I had shot the first Bower-bird, 

 and on G August, l'.)l(j, Mr. A. Campbell, who now resides 

 there, and myself were searching son^e of the deep rugged 

 gullies of the ranges, where clumps of thick scrub, :ind large 

 wild fig-trees grow in patches, when a thick-set bird was 

 seen perched in tall l)ushes ahead of us. I shot it, and 

 found it to be one of the long lost Spotted Bower-birds. 

 Then we noticed two nests, about twenty feet from the 

 bottom of the gully, in a snudl tree ("Eel-bya"),and (Campbell 

 climl)ed up to examine them. Directly he reached tlieni, 

 another Bower-bird perched in the tree a few feet ;djove 

 his head, and I asked him to turn his face away so that I 

 could shoot it, which I promptly did without doing him any 

 damage. He called down to me that one nest was very old 

 and dilapidated, and that the other one was empt}'^ ; so I asked 

 him to descend and let me climb up and examine them, while 

 he stood below with the "410 gun. Just as I was near the 

 nests^ Mr. Campbell called out : "Another of them has just 

 settled above j/our head, shall I shoot it ? " ; and as my back 

 was towards him, I replied, "" Shoot away," and a third 

 bird fell. As Campbell was picking it up, it uttered a harsh 

 cry, and a fourth bird appeared in the bushes where we had 

 seen the first, and that was also secured. The whole affair 

 only lasted a few minutes, and we were both considerably 

 excited. The only bird that uttered any sound was the 

 third one, as mentioned above. Both the nests were similar 

 in structure, being about ten inches in diameter, and made 

 entirely of sticks, with small twigs for lining material. 

 The nesting cavity was shallow in the better of the two, and 

 nearly filled with birds^ droppings and some fallen leaVv'^s. 

 It had probably been used a few months previously, and I 

 think undoubtedly, by a pair of these birds. When skinning 

 the specimens later in the day, three were found to be females, 

 and none of them showed any indications of breeding. 

 They had been feeding on snudl round berries and leaves 



