IO



The base consists of an extensive and rather convex platform of

sticks firmly interwoven, on the centre of which the bower itself

is built: this, like the platform on which it is placed, and with

which it is interwoven, is formed of sticks and twigs, but of a

more slender and flexible description, the tips of the twigs

being so arranged as to curve inwards and nearly meet at the

top: in the interior the materials are so placed that the forks of

the twigs are always presented outwards, by which arrangement

not the slightest obstruction is offered to the passage of the

birds. The interest of this curious bower is much enhanced

by the manner in which it is decorated with the most gaily

coloured articles that can be collected, such as the blue tail-

feathers of the Rose-hill and Pennantian Parralceets, bleached

bones, the shells of snails, etc. ; some of the feathers are

inserted among the twigs, while others with the bones and shells

are strewed about near the entrances. The propensity of these

birds to fly off with any attractive objedl, is so well-known to

the natives, that they always search the runs for any small

missing article that may have been accidently dropped in the

brush. I myself found at the entrance of one of them a small

neatly-worked stone tomahawk, of an inch and a half in length,

together with some slips of blue cotton rags, which the birds

had doubtless picked up at a deserted encampment of the

natives.


“ It has now been clearly ascertained that these curious

bowers are merely sporting-places in which the sexes meet, and

the males display their finery and exhibit many remarkable

actions, and so inherent is this habit, that the living examples,

which have from time to time been sent to this country, continue

it even in captivity.”


Mr. Gould never discovered the nest and eggs: the latter

were first described by Dr. Ramsay from specimens collected by

Mr. Ralph Hargrave, at Wattamolla, New South Wales.


The nest is composed of sticks and twigs, and is lined

with grass. The number of eggs appears to be two, long ovals

of a rich cream or pale stone-colour, “ spotted and blotched with

irregular patchy markings, and a few dots of umber and sienna-

brown of different tints, in some almost approaching blackish-

brown, in others of a yellowish colour ; the larger markings are

as usual on the thicker end, but a few appear with the small

dots on the thin end. In this, the usual form, the irregular,

short wavy lines ”(—“ some resembling ill-shaped figures of

fives, eights, and sevens, others being long and wavy”—),



