38 Mr. C. W. De Vis on Birds 



of quills and rectrices yellow. Legs and feet black. Bill 

 brownish blacky the mandible slightly paler. Total length of 

 skins 245-255 mm., wing 142-148, culmen 20, tarsus 37. 



Adult female. Upper surface olive-brown, slightly tinged 

 with fulvous on the back and wing-coverts, more deeply on 

 the nape and head, of which the feathers are lengthened and 

 form a dense cope, extending on the nape. Wings and tail 

 as in the male. Lores, sides of face, and ear-coverts dull 

 brown, the last with pale shaft-streaks. Lower surface pale 

 rufous brown, more or less tinged with olive-brown. Axil- 

 laries and under wing-coverts pale Isabel, as in the male of 

 A. subalaris; under surface of wings ashy brown, faintly 

 tinged with yellow towards the tips of the quills, which are 

 edged with pale dull yellow towards the base of the inner 

 webs. Throat Avith narrow pale shaft- streaks. Thighs brown. 

 Tail above brown, beneath brown faintly washed with dull 

 yellow. Legs and feet black j maxilla dark fuscous ; mandi- 

 ble paler, especially on under surface. 



Hab. Musgrave Range, 7000 to 9000 feet; two males, 

 three females. 



Dedicated to Lady Macgregor. A handsome species with 

 a horizontal crest radiating from the sinciput over the 

 shoulders or middle of the back. Chin and throat without 

 shaft-streaks. Axil! aries deep Isabel. Culmen 20 mm,, wing 

 140-148. Female with the plumes of the sides and back of 

 the head long and dense. 



Nothing in the history of the Bower-birds, so far as we 

 know it, is of greater interest than the specific modifications 

 developed in that strange instinct whence they derive their 

 popular name. From its rudimentary indictitions in Sceno- 

 pcEiis, which merely deposits and rearranges a few leaves or 

 twigs on the bared ground, to the elaborate structure of 

 Amblyornis inornat a, coxiixnuow^ steps of progress in the art of 

 bower-building are recognizable. The general plan of these 

 highly artificial constructions, their deviations from it, their 

 materials and garniture, the methods of work adopted by the 

 birds, their sexual shares in the labour, and the comparative 

 permanence of its results — all these are well worth the inves- 



