230 THE REASON \VIIY I 



*' More happy ! laid where trees with trees eiitwiu'd 

 In bowery arches tremble to the wind, 

 With innocence and shade like Adam blest, 

 While a new Eden opens in the breast." BROOME. 



He repeats the tune taught him by his master, though of considerable length, 

 fully and faithfully. He runs over the quaverings of the canary, and the clear 

 whistling of the Virginia nightingale or red-bird, with such superior execution 

 and effect, that the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority, and becon.e 

 altogether silent; while he seems to triumph in. their defeat by redoubling his 

 exertions. 



This excessive fondness for variety, however, in the opinion of some, injures 

 his song. His elevated imitations of the brown thrush are frequently interrupted 

 by the crowing of cocks ; and the warblings of the blue-bird, which he exquisitely 

 manages, are mingled with the screaming of sv allows or the cackling of hens ; 

 amidst the simple melody of the robin we are suddenly surprised by the shrill 

 reiterations of the whip-poor-will ; while the notes of the kildeer, the blue jay, 

 martin, baltimore, and twenty others, succeed with such imposing reality, that 

 we look around for the originals, and discover with astonishment that the sole 

 performer in this singular concert is the admirable bird now before us. 

 During this exhibition of his powers he spreads his wings, expands his tail, 

 and throws himself around the cage in all the ecstasy of enthusiasm, seeming 

 not only to sing, but to dance, keeping time to the measure of his own music. 

 Both in his native and domesticated state, during the solemn stillness of night, aa 

 soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he begins his delightful solo ; and 

 serenades us the livelong night with a full display of his vocal powers, making 

 the whole neighbourhood ring with his inimitable melody. 



692. Why is the bower-bird so called ? 



From a singular habit which it has of forming for itself and its 

 immediate associates of the same species a bower-like structure, for 

 die purpose of a playing ground, r place of assembly. 



693. One of the extraordinary buildings of the bower-bird is thus described by 

 Mr. Gould in his " Birds of Australia" : 



" The bower is usually placed under the shelter of the branches of some over- 

 hanging tree in the most retired part of the forest ; the base consists of an extensive 

 and rather convex platform of sticks firmly interwoven, on the centre of which the 

 bower itself is built ; this like the platform on which it is placed, and with which 

 it is interwoven, is formed of sticks and twigs, but of a more tender and flexible 

 description ; the tips of the twigs being so arranged as to curve inwards, and nearly 

 meet at the top. In the interior of the bower, the materials are so placed that the 

 forks of the twigs are always presented outwards, by which arrangement not the 

 slightest obstruction is offered to the passage of the birds. The bower is used as a 

 dlace o 1 ' resort for many individuals of both sexes, which, when there assembled, 

 un thiough and around it in a sportive and playful manner, and that so frequently 

 Iliat it is seldom entirely deserted." 



