84 Practical Bikd-Kkkping. 



looking, and is less fierce and more easily tamed. I think, too, 

 the bill in the hen is smaller. 



For their patience in fnlly rearing a young bird to maturity 

 I was awarded a silver medal by the Avicultural Society. A 

 proud moment and a memorial of these charming birds, which I 

 much value. A full account of the nesting appears in vSer, 2, 

 Vol. III. of the Avic. Mag., page 25. 



The Bower Birds, of which I have kept several, are also 

 interesting to keep, but much less easily tamed than the Toura- 

 cous. In fact, I can say truthfully, I never succeeded in tavii)ig 

 my birds at all. Probably they live entirely in the thickest of 

 dense undergrowth and rarely appear in the open, unless to make 

 and decorate their bower. 



They are singularly shy birds, highly nervous, and to be 

 kept with any degree of pleasure, both to the owner and bird, 

 must have plenty of cover in which to hide and shelter. My 

 birds were fully adult when imported, I mean by this fully grown, 

 but not in the blue-black plumage an old cock assumes. If 

 imported young, they might be more easilj^ tamed, but mine were 

 as wild as Hawks and always remained so. 



I kept my five birds (^Ptilonorhynchics violaceus) in a large 

 aviarj', about 15 ft. square, during the winter; and in the summer 

 they had an additional outside aviary, in which were growing 

 tall Rhododendrons, small shrubs and bracken, in fact a small 

 piece of woodland wired in. They made a beautiful bower 

 between two Rhododendron bushes, and decorated it with broken 

 china (blue they preferred), sea shells, and any scraps they could 

 find. About April, they built a rough nest of twigs, high up in a 

 tall Rhododendron, and two young were hatched, but alas ! as 

 soon as they flew a bitterly cold night killed them. The young 

 were remarkably thinly feathered and the June frost was too 

 much for them. {Avt'c. Mag., N.S., Vol. I., p. 64.) 



That these birds are highly intelligent there is no doubt ; 

 the grief of the poor mother I shall never forget, and she quite 

 forgot her fear of humans in the search for her dead babies. 

 A good insectivorous mixture, with banana or sweet water grape 



