136 Wonders of the Bird World 



collection and transportation of which must be a task of 

 great labour. I fully ascertained that these runs, like those 

 of the Satin Bower-bird, formed the rendezvous of many 

 individuals." 



One of the handsomest of the Bower-birds is the Regent- 

 bird (Sericulus melinus), which builds its bower in the thick 

 scrub much in the same way as PtilonorJiyncJius violaceus, 

 and like that species, the structure is supported on a 

 platform of sticks, into the interlacements of which the 

 upright twigs are fixed. The Regent-bird evidently has 

 an eye for the artistic, as a bower found by Dr. E. Pierson 

 Ramsay was filled with land-shells belonging to five or six 

 species, while several kinds of berries of various colours 

 gave it a very pretty appearance ; besides these there were 

 several newly-picked leaves and young shoots of a pinkish 

 tint. Another observer states that he once found a bower 

 of the Regent-bird in a secluded place in the scrub, and so 

 concealed by small shrubs that he had to crouch on his 

 hands and knees to get to it. The ground in the immediate 

 vicinity for about a foot and a half was swept clear of 

 leaves, and his attention was called to it by the actions of 

 the male bird which was playing on the ground, jumping 

 up and down, puffing out its feathers, and rolling about in 

 a very odd manner. The nest made by the Regent-bird 

 is a flimsy structure of a few sticks. It has recently been 

 described by Mr. A. J. Campbell, a well-known Australian 

 Oologist, as of such a loose nature — merely a few twigs 

 forming a flat shelf about five inches across — that it fell to 

 pieces on removal from the tree, and it was wonderful how 

 the eggs retained their position in it. 



Still more remarkable is the bower made by the Golden 

 Bower-bird (Prionodura newtoniand), a species which 

 frequents the Bellenden Ker-range in Queensland, where 

 it was discovered in 1883 by Mr. Kendal Broadbent. At 

 first only the female bird, which is of a very dull olive- 



