PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



411 



and blackbird, but are about as large as jackdaws, have a 

 curious habit of building arched bowers quite independent of 

 their nests. 



The shape of one of these bowers is shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustration. 



The bird first weaves a sort of platform of flexible sticks, and 

 then fastens into them a number of other sticks, so set that they 

 form a sort of arched gallery. Through this gallery the birds 

 love to run, and they invariably decorate the ends with any- 

 thing pretty that they can pick up, such as feathers, coloured 



PLAYrrROCXD OF BOWER-BIRD. 



GARDKN- BOWKR, 



stones, shells, ornaments, and the like. So well is this proclivity 

 known, that whenever any one who is living in the Bush loses 

 any small piece of property, such as a pencil-case or watch-key, 

 or even a tobacco-pipe, he always goes to the Bower-bird's 

 pleasure garden, and mostly discovers the lost property. 



At the Zoological Gardens these Bower- birds have long lived, 

 and it is a most interesting sight to watch them weaving their 

 platforms, raising the bowers over them, and then keep running 

 in at one end and out at the other, like children at play, and 

 with their burnished plumage gleaming in the sunbeams. 



The right-hand figure simply depicts a modern pleasure 

 garden, and needs no description. 



