52 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



email portion of its diet. Independently of 

 numerous berry-bearing plants and shrubs, the 

 brushes it inhabits are studded with enormous fig 

 trees, to the fruit of which it is especially par- 

 tial. It appears to have particular times in the day 

 for feeding, and, 'when thus engaged among the lo>v 

 shrub-like trees, I have approached within a few feet 

 without creating alarm ; but at other times the bird was 

 extremely shy and watchful, especially the old male's, 

 which not infrequently perch on tihe topmost branch or 

 dead limlb of the loftiest, tree in the forest, whence they 

 can survey all round, and waitdh the movements of their 

 females and young in the brush (beloiw." 



Respecting the playing tunnels (bowers, as they are 

 fanciiuflly called) constructed by these birds, Gould says 

 they are placed "on the ground, under the shelter of 

 the branches of overhanging trees, in the most retired 

 part of the forest ; they differed considerably in size, 

 some being a third larger than others. The base con- 

 sists of an extensive and rather convex platform of 

 stacks 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 stacks and twigs, but of a more slender and flexible 

 description, the tips of the twigs being so arranged 

 as to curve inwards a.nd nearly meet at the top ; in 

 the interior the materials are so placed that the forks 

 of the twi.gs a<re always presented outwards, by which 

 arrangement not the slightest obstruction as offered to 

 the passage of the birds. The interest of this curious 

 bower is much enhanced Toy the manner in which it is 

 decorated with the most gaily-coloured articles that can 

 be collected, such as the blue taiil-featheirs.of the Rose- 

 hill and Pennantian Parrakeets, bleached bones, the 

 shells of snails, etc. some of the feathers are inserted 

 among the twigs, \vhil-3 others, with the bones and 

 shells, are strewed about near the entrances. The pro- 

 pensity of these, birds to fly off -with any attractive 

 object is so well known, to the natives that they always 

 search the runs for any small missing article that may 

 'have been accidentally dropped in the brush. I myself 

 found at the entrance of one of them a small, neatly- 

 worked stone tomahawk of 'an inch and a half in length, 

 together with some slips of blue cotton rags, which the 

 birds had doubtless picked up at a deserted encampment 

 of the natives. 



" It has now been clearly ascertained that these 

 curious bowers a.re merely sporting-places in which the 

 sexes meet, and the males display their finery and 

 exhibit many remarkable actions ; and eo inherent is 

 this halbit that the living examples which have from 

 time to time been sent to this country continue it even 

 in captivity. Thoise belonging to the Zpological Society 

 have construabed their bowers, decorated and kept them 

 in repair for several successive years." 



In A. J. Campbell's " Nests and Eggs of Australian 

 Birds" ie an admirable photographic illustration of the 

 nest and eggs of this species in situ. I therefore take 

 the description of both from his valuable work, pip. 191, 

 192, as follows: 'Nett: Open, shallow, somewhat 

 loosely constructed of twigs ; lined inside with leaves 

 (Eucalyptus), and placed in a scrublby bush or tree, at 

 a height varying from about ten to thirty feet from the 

 ground. Dimensions over all : Diameter seven or eight 

 inches, by five inches in depth. 



TVgqs : Clutch, two to three; shape, true oval; shell 

 moderately fine in texture, surface glossy ; colour varies 

 from dark cream to dirty yellow, irregularly blotched 

 and spotted with umber, cinnamon-brown, and a few 

 purplish-grey markings. In some specimen's the 

 blotches are very bold, with the markings under the 

 surface of the sh^ll of a bluish-black shade. Occasion- 



ally there is a type with a lighter or paler coloured 

 ground and smaller -si zed markings. Others, again, 

 have the markings more in the form of hierogly/phics. 

 Dimensions in inches of a typical clutch : (1) 1.76 x 

 1.19; (2) 1.74 x 1.17. 



Mr. Campbell tells us that " some seasons Satin Birds 

 are very destructive in the gardens and orchards, eating 

 clover, especially the flowers, English grass, talblbaige* 

 dawn to the very root, and fruit. The late W. B. 

 Ba-iley, Pimjpama Nurseries, South Queensland, in- 

 formed me of an instance in which he had about three 

 acres of mandarin oranges stripped in a week. The 

 birds are also fond of sweet potato tubers. I noticed at 

 Mr. Bailey's residence a very handsome male bird which 

 he had in captivity. It was in its youthful coat of 

 mottled green when he first obtained it. It is interest- 

 ing to learn that this bird did not don its full livery 

 of blue-lblack till tihe fourth year. The bird was an 

 excellent mimic, could talk, and imitate well the mew- 

 ing of a cat." 



In 1900 I described the behaviour of what I then 

 believed to be a pair of Bower-birds in my possession, 

 as follows : " He constantly sings to the hen, puffs 

 out his feathers, arches his back, alternately opens and 

 shuts one wing or the other, flies round with a dropped 

 quill feather in his beak, and once he so alarmed his 

 wife that she turned on her back on the earth with 

 open beak and claws up to defend herself. My man 

 came running to me saying : ' He's done it ; I said 

 he would ; he's killed her ! ' And certainly it looked 

 like it until I went inside the aviary, when she was 

 up and off to her favourite roost in a second. 



"The song is a most comical performance, and 

 resembles nothing so much as water, containing bits of 

 cabbage-leaf, running down a sink, and interspersed 

 here and there with clear Starling-like notes. The 

 alarm note is a jarring monosyllable most like the 

 word scoot, with a very rough hesitation on the c. As 

 this species is particularly nervous and excitable, the 

 alarm-note is often heard. It is difficult to express the 

 sounds of the song in words, but the idea it conveys 

 bo the mind is a rapid whozzle-whozzle-whozzle-sqrrrr, 

 with variations." 



Briefly to review the history of my two Bower-birds, 

 I may note that the supposed pair (palpably in nest- 

 ling plumage, both small and with indications of pale 

 spots on the green plumage) came into my possession 

 in September, 1899, and at the end of a year one had 

 assumed the adult plumage of the male, the other the 

 adult plumage of the female. Naturally I concluded 

 that I had secured an undoubted pair, although both 

 sang and danced ; and though they certainly quarrelled, 

 that fact in no way disturbed my faith, because from 

 my boyhood I had been taught that " the quarrels of 

 lovers are the beginning of love." 



When in July, 1904, the supposed hen began to assume 

 male plumage and became so spiteful that I had to 

 remove the undoubted cock, I concluded, as a matter 

 of course, that disease of the ovarj was affecting her 

 plumage (see my short paper in the " Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History," Seventh Series, Vol. 

 XVI., pp. 350-351). Later the perfect male plumage was 

 acquired and retained permanently, and exactly three 

 years later the bird died and proved to be a cock. 



Why some cock birds should assume male plumage at 

 the end of the second year, and others should disport 

 themselves in female attire for six years or longer, is a 

 problem which requires a good deal of explanation. 

 My birds were only two out of half a dozen or more, 

 all palpably young birds, imported in one batch. 



In 1902 (The Avicultural Magazine, Second Series, 

 Vol. I., pp. 63-68) Mrs. Johnstone published an in- 



