BRACHIAL ARTERY—BRAIN 51 
“bower” of Prionodura, a genus of which the male, like the Regent- 
bird, is conspicuous for his bright orange coloration. This 
structure is said by Mr. Devis (Trans. Roy. Soc. Queensland, 14 June 
1889) to be piled up almost horizontally round the base of a tree 
to the height of from 4 to 6 feet, and around it are a number of 
hut-like fabrics, having the look of a dwarfed native camp, Allied 
to the forms already named are two others, Scenopwus and 
Ailuredus, which, though not apparently building “bowers,” yet 
clear a space of ground some 8 or 9 feet in diameter, on which to 
display themselves, ornamenting it “with tufts and little heaps of 
gaily tinted leaves and young shoots” (Ramsay, Proc, Zool. Soc. 
1875, p. 592). The former of them, which, according to Mr. Lum- 
holtz (Among Cannibals, pp. 139, 140), covers a space of about a 
square yard with large fresh leaves neatly laid, and removes 
them as they decay, inhabits Queensland, and to the latter belongs 
the “Cat-bird,” so well known to Australians from its loud, harsh, 
and extraordinary cries. 
By most systematists these birds are placed among the Para- 
diseide (BIRD-OF-PARADISE) ; but in 
the British Museum Catalogue of 
Birds (vi. pp. 380-396) they are 
to be found in the ‘limbo large 
and broad” of Yimeliide—though 
allowed the rank of a_ subfamily 
“ Ptilonorhynchine,” the name being 
taken from the feathered and not 
the bare (as might from its ety- 12 UOTE EOS) SUAS 
mology have been expected) condi- Geta eee 
tion of the base of the bill shewn in the figure of that part in the 
Satin-bird. 
BRACHIAL ARTERY, see VAscuLAR SysTEM: BRACHIAL 
PLEXUS, see NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
BRAIN, the part of the Central. NeERvous SysTEm which is 
enclosed by the cranium, and in Birds consists of three principal 
divisions, named after their position—Hind- Mid- and Forebrain. 
The hindbrain is composed of the medulla oblongata, the direct and 
comparatively little modified continuation of the spinal cord, and of 
the cerebellum, these two parts being connected with each other 
by the pedunculi or crura cerebelli. The midbrain contains the 
peduncles of the great or forebrain, and the cortex or rind of the 
optic lobes. The forebrain is subdivided into the thalamencephalon 
and into the cerebral hemispheres. The ventral parts of the 
thalamencephalon form the hypophysis and the chiasma or 
crossing of the optic nerves, the lateral parts contain the inner 
portions of the optic lobes, which are partly homologous with 
