66 Jackson, Haunts of the Spotted Bower-Bird. [i^Poct. 



they never fail to frequent the orchard of the run-holder when 

 the fruit is ripe ; " out back," however, such places are few and 

 far apart. To give some idea (by contrast) of the different con- 

 ditions of an ordinarily good season, I may mention that, after 

 I had finished my work, broken camp, and returned to Sydney, 

 the drought broke in June, 1912, and in the locality which I had 

 only known as sun-dried and drought-smitten over 6 inches of 

 rainfall were registered by Mr. Melville Doyle at the Cambo 

 Cambo homestead ; and in a recent letter he informed me that 

 all the tanks and dams were full, and the Moonie River running 

 strongly, after the long dry spell which had prevailed during my 

 stay. 



As the field study of botany and ornithology are interdependent, 

 I take this early stage of thanking Mr. J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for his kindness in 

 naming the botanical material collected during the trip. 



Diary of Field Observations. 



igth September. — After spending a few days going over the station and 

 tentatively studying the Spotted Bower-Birds, a central spot was selected 

 for the camp, and, after my goods were carted out, the tent was put up 

 under the shade of a green wilga {Geijera parvijlora, Lindl.) tree. This 

 tree stood close to a sheep-tank or dam, and it was not long before the 

 curious Spotted Bower- Birds found me, and, later on, every morning their 

 peculiar noises and wonderful rehearsals of mimicry would awaken me at 

 daylight. On the west side of this sheep-tank, and almost within a stone's- 

 throw from my camp, these birds were playing in a new, well constructed 

 and decorated bower which they had built on a piece of hard, bare ground 

 under the shade of a wilga, on the site of a ringbarkers' old camp 

 Messrs. Bruce Doyle, Melville Doyle, and W. L. Trewenack were with me 

 to-day when this bower (No. i) was first discovered, and we all examined 

 the curious display of decorations in it. They had kindly accompanied me 

 out to this part of the station with the view to assisting me to pick a suitable 

 place to put up my camp, near a dam of good water. The bower 

 (Plate VII.) had actually been built at a place where we had at first 

 decided to camp, and was placed facing north and south. The decorations 

 included many articles which the birds had evidently picked up on 

 far-oft" station homesteads and from various bush camps, or where such 

 once stood. Among several articles which were missed from my camp 

 during this trip were an aluminium teaspoon, together with a small pair of 

 silver-plated entomological forceps, and on my visiting this bower (No. i) 

 I found them there. On this day the decorations in it were as follow : — 

 Numerous bleached and burnt rib and vertebra bones of sheep, Emus' 

 toe-bones, many pieces of glass of various colours, a number of glass 

 stoppers from sauce bottles, thin galvanized iron clippings, galvanized 

 roofing screws and washers, small pieces of bright tin, tea lead ; various 

 berries and seed-pods, including those of the needle-wood tree {Hakea 

 leiicoptera, R. Br.), and old ones of the leopard-wood tree {F/i/idersid 

 maculosa, F. v. M.) ; three necks of bottles, small stones, pieces of bleached 

 Emu egg-shell, one cartridge case, lead capsules from pickle bottles, &c., 

 old nails, buttons, and large green cigar-shaped pods of the native silk-vine 

 {Marsdenta leichhardtiaiia, F. v. M.), &c. The foundation of the bower 

 was constructed of thin sticks and twigs cle\erly worked together, forming 

 a firm platform, and the sides or walls consisted of a perpendicular erection 

 of a few thin sticks and a great quantity of long, clean, and dead stems 

 of a local grass generally known as blue-grass [Andropogoti sericeus, R. Br.) 



