158 LEAVES FROM THE 



having a large round spot of full buff at the tip. Pri- 

 maries slightly tipped "svith white. All the tail-feathers 

 with buffy white terminations. Under parts grayish 

 white. Flank-feathers zio-zacrcfed, with faint transverse 

 light broA\T.i lines. Bill and feet dusky brown. At the 

 corner of the mouth the bare, thick, fleshy, prominent 

 skin, is of a pinky flesh colour, and the irides are dark 

 brown. 



The rosy frill adorns the adults of both sexes ; but the 

 young male and female of the year have it not. 



Another species, the great bower-bird,* was probably 

 the architect of the bowers found by Captain Grey 

 during his Australian rambles, and which interested him 

 greatly in consequence of the doubts entertained by him 

 whether they Avere the works of a bird or of a qua- 

 druped, — the inclination of his mind being, that their 

 construction was due to the four-footed animal. They 

 were formed of dead grass and parts of bushes, sunk a 

 slight depth into two parallel furrows, in sandy soil, and 

 were nicely arched above ; they were always full of 

 broken sea-shells, large heaps of which also protruded 

 from the extremity of the bower. In one of these 

 bowers, the most remote from the sea of those discovered 

 by Captain Grey, was a heap of the stones of some fruit, 

 that evidently had been rolled therein. He never saw 

 any animal in or near these bowers ; but the abundant 

 droppings of a small species of kangairoo close to them, 

 induced him to suppose them to be the work of some 

 quadruped. 



Here, then, we have a race of birds whose ingenuity 

 is not merely directed to the usual ends of existence, 

 self-preservation, and the continuation of the species, but 

 to the elegances and amusements of life. Their bowers 

 are their ball and assembly rooms ; and we are very 



Chlamydera nuchalis. 



