NOTE -BOOK OF A NATUKALIST. 159 



much mistaken if they are not, like those places of 



meeting 



For whispering lovers made. 



The male satin bower-bird, in the garden at the 

 Regent's Park, is indefatigable in his assiduity towards 

 the female ; and his winning ways to coax her into the 

 bower conjure up the notion that the soul of some 

 Damon, in the course of its transmigration, has found 

 its way into his elegant form. He picks up a brilliant 

 feather, flits about with it before her, and when he has 

 caught her eye adds it to the decorations. 



Haste my Nanette, my lovely maid, 

 Haste to the bower thy swain has made. 



No enchanted prince could act the deferential lover with 

 more delicate or graceful attention. Poor fellow, the 

 pert, intruding sparrows plague him abominably; and 

 really it becomes almost an affair of police that some 

 measures shoidd be adopted for their exclusion. He is 

 subject to fits too, and suddenly, without the least appa- 

 rent warning, falls senseless, like an epileptic patient ; but 

 presently recovers, and busies himself about the bower. 

 When he has induced the female to enter it, he seems 

 greatly pleased ; alters the disposition of a feather or a 

 shell, as if hoping that the change may meet her appro- 

 bation ; and looks at her as she sits coyly under the 

 over-arching twigs, and then at the little arrangement 

 which he has made, and then at her again, till one could 

 almost fancy that one hears him breathe a sigh. He is 

 still in his transition-dress, and has not yet donned his 

 full Venjetian suit of black. 



In their natural state, the satin bower-birds associate 

 in autumn in small parties ; and Mr. Gould states that 

 they may then often be seen on the ground near the 

 sides of rivers, particularly where the brush feathers the 

 descending bank down to the water's edge. The male 



