8



Now, before going any further, I may say that, unless my

male is in every respect exceptional, the above account is

incorrect in almost every detail :—when young, the male mainly

differs from the female in its superior size and more aggressive

behaviour ; at first it has no black markings anywhere, but after

a time these begin to appear irregularly on the crown, nape,

greater wing-coverts and sides of breast.


So far as I could discover, the change of colour (which

occupies just a year) was produced precisely in the opposite

manner to that described in the Catalogue. Contrary to my

expectation the birds did not moult in our spring ; the colour¬

ing of the male gradually spread from month to month, so slowly

that, if produced by a moult of the body-feathers, they must

have been shed singly. At no time was there any litter of

feathers, as is the case with most birds when moulting.


About the end of July the quills and stumps of the tail-

feathers began to fall out, perhaps one or two in a day, and

before these were all dropped the new richly-coloured feathers

began to replace those that were lost; so that the birds were

never hampered or crippled in their flight like many soft-food

birds. The full colouring was not attained until near the end of

September, 1900.


The adult colouring of the male Satin Bower-bird, when

living, varies somewhat according to the light in which it is

viewed : seen from below the prevailing colour is intense glossy

black, the eyes looking almost brown ; when, however, the bird

descends to the floor of the aviary the whole of the plumage,

excepting the flights becomes satiny Prussian blue, the iris being

of a transparent brilliant ultramarine blue. According to

Gould the iris is “ beautiful light blue, with a circle of red round

the pupil: ” possibly this may be the case in some examples,

but both of my birds, as well as a pair Mr. Housden possessed,

could only be properly described as having eyes of the colour

of “ Reckitt’s Paris Blue” or ultramarine. If closely examined

I daresay the red ring round the pupil exists, which would

account for the brownish appearance of the eyes when the light

does not fall direct upon them.


The blue-black feathers, which cover the base of the

culmen and nostrils of the upper mandible, give the bill of the

male a deceptively shortened appearance.


The general colouring of the female is greyish green, the

rump and upper tail-coverts being brighter; the greater and

primary wing-coverts are reddish-brown, the innermost coverts



