6 4



Mrs. Johnstone,



All the Satin-birds (five) assembled here, and the curious

rolling trilling song of the cocks was continually heard, and

their love dances watched with much interest by the hens who,

so far as I could see, never helped in the building of the bower

or of the decoration thereof. They were to be distinguished

from the cocks by their slighter build, and by their rather

smaller and generally more feminine appearance.


The first nest was constructed of loose twigs in a thick

rhododendron bush, and about eight feet from the ground ; this

was pulled to pieces and a more substantial foundation built,

still of twigs but of some thickness ; and almost immediately

on the completion of the nest the hen began to sit. The nest

looked like a small Crow’s nest, and, as I discovered afterwards,

was well lined with small rhododendron leaves. It was situated

about 36 ft. from the bower, and only visited by the pair of birds

to which it belonged, the cock usually keeping guard at the side

of the bush, and attacking any other bird who approached too

near. He never, as far as I could see, fed the hen when on the

nest. She came off at rare intervals and fed herself, but he used

to sing a great deal, particularly in the evening ; the curious

rolling rippling note could be heard a good distance away. He

was, I believe, the oldest of the party, and was a larger bolder

bird than the others, and showed signs of coming shortly into

colour. The back of the neck was thickly pencilled with purple,

and, in comparison to the other birds, he appeared to have

almost a ruff, so thick were the feathers around the back of the

neck A'


The hen sat very closely for three weeks, commencing to

sit on June 7th, and carrying mealworms to the nest for the first

time on June 28th ; and from that time until July 29th, when the

young birds left the nest, she was kept busy, as almost the entire

work of bringing them up devolved upon her. She brooded the

young very closely at first, darting down to seize the mealworms

or cockroaches ; but she never would feed them when anyone

was watching, and would patiently wait with her beak full of

mealworms until the aviary was free from intruders. The young



This rather suggests the Spotted Bower-bird, if lilac instead of purple.—R. P.



