SPOTTED BOWER BIRD.— CSMmyiKra macnUla. 



colours. It has a liarsh, grating, scolding note, generally uttered when its haunts are 

 intruded on, by which its presence is detected. 



The situation of its runs or bowers varies much. They are considerably larger and 

 more avenue-like than those of the Satin Bower Bird, being in many instances three feet 

 in length. They are outwardly built of twigs and lined with tall grasses ; the decorations 

 are very profuse, consisting of bivalve shells, crania of small mammalia, and other bones. 

 E\ident indications of contrivance are manifest throughout the whole of the bower and its 

 decorations, particularly in the manner in which the stones are arranged, a^jparently to 

 keep the grasses with which it is lined firmly in their places. A row of stones diverges 

 from the mouth of the run on each side, so as to fonn little paths, while the heap of 

 decorative materials is placed at a heap before the entrance ; this an-angement is the 

 same at both ends. Some of the larger bowers, which had evidently been resorted to for 

 many years, contained nearly half a bushel of bones and shells." 



The colour of this bird is a rich brown covered with buff spots, and upon the back 

 of the neck there is a band of lengthened feathers of a beautiful rose-pink and glistening 

 with a satLn-like sheen. For more detailed information of these curious birds, as well as 

 for some admirable coloured engra\ings of themselves and their bowers, the reader is 

 referred to Gould's " Birds of Australia." 



The account of the Glossy Starlings would be incomplete without a passing mention of 

 the JriDA ; a bird rather larger than our English starling, with an elongated tail, and a 

 plumage that is most singidarly covered with everj' imaginable shade of shining copper, 

 purple, violet, and blue, intermixed in such a manner as to defy description, and seeming 



