34 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Spotted Bower-Bird. During the season 1895, Mr Charles 

 French (through his worthy father Mr Charles French, 

 F.L.S.) experienced a windfall which gave collectors a 

 pleasant surprise, two pairs of handsome eggs, collected 

 during August in the vicinity of the Gregory Eiver, reach- 

 ing Mr French's collection. With thoughtful kindness, 

 Mr French at once divided the second pair between his old 

 friend Mr G. A. Keartland and myself. 



Mr A. J. North, of the Australian Museum, Sydney, 

 happened shortly afterwards to visit Melbourne. He was 

 also surprised to see that the fine eggs had been "over 

 carried" — that is, past Sydney. But he was not to be 

 outdone in the matter of the first description. He had 

 (and I commend him for his astuteness) three out of the 

 four eggs described, and two of them figured in the Victorian 

 Naturalist, almost before the owners were cognisant of 

 the fact. 



In the season of 1896, Mr E. Cornwall found a nest con- 

 taining two eggs of the Queensland Bower-Bird. The nest, 

 which was placed in a small river " oak " (? Casv/iriiia) in a 

 little scrub composed of the same trees, on the bank of 

 Canal Creek, a tributary of the Alice Eiver, very much 

 resembled that of the Butcher Bird {GractiGus), but was much 

 less strongly built ; in fact, so loosely was it put together 

 that Mr Cornwall says it fell to pieces when he endeavoured 

 to remove it. 



In November, the same season, my friend Mr D. Le Souef 

 found a nest of this fine Bower-Bird in open forest in the 

 Bloomfield Eiver district. The nest was at the height of 

 12 feet from the ground, near the end of a horizontal 

 Eucalyptus branch, and contained one egg. Near the same 

 locality he had the opportunity of examining and photo- 

 graphing a bower which was situated under a low, thick 

 bush. The avenue was about 2 feet in length, and 

 5 inches wide; the parallel walls, which nearly touched 

 each other at the top, were about 14 inches high by 

 about 5 inches through their thickest part. There was a 

 fair heap of bleached bones at either entrance, 



