The Satin Bower-Bird. 



263 



THE SATIN BOWER-BIRD. 



(Ptilonorhynchus Jiolosericeus.) 



THIS singular bird was first brought before the notice 

 of the public by Mr. Gould, in his splendid work, the 

 " Birds of Australia," from which the following extracts 

 are given by permission of its author. The most remark- 

 able circumstance relating to this bird, is its construction 

 of a bower-like tenement, the object of which, it should 

 seem, is a sort of play ing-ground, or hall of assembly. 



"The Satin Bower-bird, " says Mr. Gould, "is not a 

 stationary species, but appears to range from one part of 

 a district to another, either for the purpose of varying 

 the nature, or of obtaining a more abundant supply of 

 food. Judging from the many specimens I dissected, it 

 would seem that it is altogether granivorous and fru- 

 givorous ; or, if not exclusively so, that insects form but 

 a small portion of its diet. The brushes it inhabits are 

 studded with enormous fig-trees, some of them towering 

 to the height of two hundred feet; among the lofty 

 branches of which the Satin Bower-bird finds, in the 



