Feb., 1909] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 161 



the Australian Ptilonorhynchidce. Scenopoeetes, as I have pointed 

 out elsewhere,* in habits appears to form a connecting link between 

 the true bower-builders and the Cat-birds, the single representative 

 of this genus contenting itself with clearing a rounded space in the 

 scrub and placing leaves thereon, and usually with the under-side 

 uppermost. The Cat-birds, which are also included in the family 

 Ptilonorhynchidce, so far as is known do not form bowers, or even 

 amuse themselves like Scenopceetes with leaf decorations. 



Little wonder, then, that the subject of my first contribution to 

 a scientific society should be " Notes on the Bower-birds of 

 Australia,"t and which I read at a meeting of the Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales on the 26th December, 1886. At 

 that time our information, except on Ftilonorhynchus violaceus 

 and Chlamydodera maculata, was, comparatively, meagre in the 

 extreme, and only the eggs of these two species had been 

 described, both by Dr. E. P. Ramsay. Prionodura newtoniana 

 and Scenopceetes dentirostris were, too, then each known only 

 from single mutilated specimens. Some additional light was 

 thrown on the subject at that meeting by Dr. E. P. Ramsay and 

 myself separately describing an egg of the Regent Bower-bird, 

 Sericulus melinus, Latham, taken from the oviduct, also by my 

 description of an egg of the Fawn-breasted Bower-bird, Chlamy- 

 dodera cerviniventris. In illustration of my paper Dr. Ramsay 

 exhibited the eggs of these two species, among those of other 

 species of Bower-birds. Including the Cat-birds, there are 

 altogether eleven representatives of the family Ptilonorhynchidce 

 in Australia, of which I have had the pleasure of since describing 

 and making known the nests and eggs of the following species : — 

 The Eastern Bower-bird, Chlamydodera orientalis, Gould ; the 

 Guttated Bower-bird, Chlamydodera guttata, Gould ; the Cat- 

 bird, uEluroedus viridis, Latham; the Spotted Cat-bird, jElurcedus 

 maculosus, Ramsay ; and leaving only those of Prionodura and 

 Scenopceetes to be described. 



Let me now digress for a little while. In order to fully study 

 the habits of the Satin Bower-bird, I kept a pair of these birds in 

 confinement for several years, and occasionally giving them the 

 run of a large confined place, before presenting them to Mr. J. 

 H. Maiden, the Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, who 

 had an aviary especially erected for their reception, in which was 

 enclosed a thickly-foliaged and wide-spreading low tree. I have 

 seen it stated more than once that the adult male of this species 

 evinces a decided preference for anything of a blue or violet 

 colour, but it is contrary to my experience, for the old male when 

 in my possession would as freely pick up and carry about in its 



* North, Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds., vol. i., p. 69 (1901). 



t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2nd sen), vol. i., pp. 1,155-62 (1887). 



