No. in 
Data Campbell’s No. of 
No. Book. Eggs. 
550A 159 2 
THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 
were always the finest structures, and were tastefully decorated by the birds with coloured berries, leaves, 
dead land shells (snails), glass, blue feathers, etc. ; even tobacco tags, dropped by the men working in 
the scrubs, were amongst the ornaments found in the bowers. The decorations always depended 
entirely on the condition of the surroundings. The bower is simply a play-ground or courting place. 
Some people are under the impression that the birds deposit their eggs in these bowers ; this, of course, 
is a very wrong idea ; the play-ground is in no way connected with the nidification. The accompany- 
ing illustration of the bower of this Satin Bird (page 108), is from a photograph which I took at Badger 
Corner, in the Don Dorrigo scrubs, in October of 1898, and not far from the nest which contained the 
set of eggs under notice. This beautiful play-ground contained, amongst its various decorations, a tail 
feather of the Lyre Bird ; also, blue Parrot feathers, coloured leaves, and quite a number of dead snail 
shells, the latter comprising some rare species, peculiar to those parts, viz. :—Helix ptycomphala, 
Helix Bellengevensis, Helix dupuyana, Helix Strangei, and the beautiful delicate Bulimus Larveyi. The 
latter shell, which was described 34 years ago, was named after an aboriginal known in those days as 
“ King Larrey,” and who was with John Brazier, C.M.Z.S., the conchologist, when he originally found 
this new species at 
Manarm Creek, near 
the Don Dorrigo, in 
1873. When I related 
my find of this rare 
snail shell to Dr. 
asa CaCox avin :, 
F.R.C.S., he was quite 
elated over it, as the 
specimens in his great 
conchological collec- 
tion had been found 
by J. Brazier in the 
scrubs near the Don 
Dorrigo in 1873, and 
the doctor had not 
seen any others since 
then. Rare landshells 
are often found in the 
Our camp at Nymboida, near Grafton, N.S.W., close to the Oak forest from which 
we took the set of Satin Birds’ eggs. 
(See data No. 5504.) 
various Bower Birds’ play-grounds. It would be interesting to learn why these birds have the strange 
habit of decorating the bowers with blue feathers and pieces of blue glass, in preference to other colors. 
Their eyes being of a beautiful blue may probably have something to do with it. The glass usually 
consists of portions of broken castor oil bottles, which the birds pick up about the settlers’ homesteads 
in the scrubs. 
This magnificent clutch of two eggs was taken in the Oak forest, close to a dense scrub, near 
Nymboida, and situated 33 miles south-west of Grafton, N.S.W., on the 29th of October, 1895, by 
W. McEnerny, J. Bennett, and Sid. W. Jackson. Unfortunately we were only able to spend one day in the 
latter locality, otherwise we may have been successful in finding more of these nests and eggs. It was this 
find that encouraged and prompted me to revisit the locality again, and also Clouds Creek in December 
of the following year (1896), when I took, with other specimens, set No. 549. 
notice are very elongated specimens, and are most beautifully veined all over, on a ground of yellowish- 
stone, with long lines of cinnamon-brown, purple, and purplish-grey, the latter appearing as if beneath 
the surface of the shell. They look as if a person had painted fanciful shapes and figures on the shell 
with a brush. These curious lines and hook-like markings twist and bend about in all directions, and 
on specimen A., which is an unusually well-marked egg, the bizarre markings are very numerous, 
The pair of eggs under 
109 
