30 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Chlamydodera guttata, Gould. 

 Yellow-Spotted or Guttated Bower- Bird. 



Figure.— Gfowldi, Birds of Australia, fol., Sup., pi. 35. 

 Reference.— Qsit. B. Brit. Mus., vi. p. 390. 



Geogra^yhical Distribution. — North- West Australia, Northern 

 Territory, and Central Australia. 



Nest and Eggs. — Unknown. 



Observations. — Gould was indebted to Mr T. F. Gregory, 

 the West Australian explorer, for the first specimen of this 

 little-known species in North-West Australia. 



The bird is spotted, like the G. niactdata, but differs in the 

 guttations of the upper surface, being larger in size and 

 more distinct, the abdomen being buff, and the shafts of the 

 primaries a richer yellow. Subsequently Sturt, on his trans- 

 continental journey, met with the bird, and lately (1894) the 

 Guttated Bower-Bird was again reported in Central Australia 

 by the Home Scientific Expedition. 



A valued correspondent, Mr Tom Carter, found a Bower- 

 Bird near the North-'W'est Cape, which, I believe, is referable 

 to this species. 



In reference to this bird's supposed playing-bower, Gould 

 quotes from Sir George Gray's " Travels," in which that 

 author writes : — " This very curious sort of * nest,' which was 

 frequently found by myself and other individuals of the 

 party, not only along the sea-shore, but in some instances at 

 a distance of six or seven miles from it, I once conceived 

 must belong to a kangaroo, until I was informed that it was 

 a run or playing-place of a species of Chlamydodera, These 

 structures were formed of dead grass and parts of bushes, 

 sunk a slight depth into two parallel furrows in sandy soil, 

 and then nicely arched above. But the most remarkable fact 

 connected with them was that they were always full of 

 broken sea-shells, large heaps of which protruded from each 

 extremity. In one instance, in a bower the most remote from 

 the sea that we discovered, one of the men of the party found 

 and brought to me the stone of some fruit which had evidently 

 been rolled in the sea ; these stones he found lying in a heap 

 in the nest, and they are now in my possession." 



