INSESSORES. 451 



avenue-like than those of the Satin Bower-bird, being in many 

 instances three feet in length. They are outwardly built of 

 twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that 

 their heads nearly meet ; the decorations are very profuse, and 

 consist of bivalve shells, crania of small mammalia and other 

 bones bleached by exposure to the rays of the sun or from the 

 camp-fires of the natives. Evident indications of high instinct 

 are manifest throughout the whole of the bower and decorations 

 formed by this species, particularly in the manner in which 

 the stones are placed within the bower, apparently to keep the 

 grasses with which it is lined fixed firmly in their places : 

 these stones diverge from the mouth of the run on each side 

 so as to form little paths, while the immense collection of 

 decorative materials are placed in a heap before the entrance 

 of the avenue, the arrangement being the same at both ends. 

 In some of the larger bowers, which had evidently been re- 

 sorted to for many years, I have seen half a bushel of bones, 

 shells, &c., at each of the entrances. I frequently found these 

 structures at a considerable distance from the rivers, from 

 the borders of which they could alone have procured the shells 

 and small round pebbly stones ; their collection and trans- 

 portation must therefore be a task of great labour. I fully 

 ascertained that these runs, like those of the Satin Bower- 

 bird, formed the rendezvous of many individuals ; for, after 

 secreting myself for a short space of time near one of them, I 

 killed two males which I had previously seen running through 

 the avenue. 



The natives unhesitatingly state that the bird makes its 

 nest in the high gum trees, and Mr. Charles Coxen of Bris- 

 bane found a nest of the Cldamydodera maculata with young 

 birds in it some years ago on Oaky Creek near the present 

 Jondaryan head station, on the Darling Downs ; the nest was 

 built in one of the MyrtacecB overhanging a waterhole, near a 

 scrub, on which a bower was built ; and was in form very 

 similar to that of the Common Thrush of Europe, being of a 



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