Birds-of-Paradise and Bower-birds. 383 
No doubt the nature of the decorations varies according 
to the flowers and berries which are in season. I have never 
seen in these playgrounds the shells, feathers, and pebbles 
which are met with in those of some of the Australian 
Bower-birds. 
It is very difficult to see the birds in the playgrounds. 
They keep a sharp look-out for all intruders, hiding in the 
trees and uttering no ery while anyone is about. After 
watching a playground without success I have visited it the 
next morning and found fresh flowers placed in position, I 
obtained one Orange-crested Bower-bird, which is, I think, 
Amblyornis subalaris, but may be Anblyornis inornata, This 
specimen was shot on a ridge where I had seen three of these 
playgrounds, but was met with at a slightly higher elevation 
and about five miles further along the ridge. Anthony and 
the natives informed me that it is this bird which makes the 
playground described above. There is a rare native curiosity 
composed of the separate feathers of the crests of the Bower- 
birds strung together to form a headdress. ‘The natives, no 
doubt, obtain the birds by trapping them in their play- 
grounds. 
There is another kind of playground of which I have seen 
three in the Kagi district and on the main range; all of them, 
I think, were at an elevation of over 6000 feet, and of one I 
give a rough sketch in vertical section. 
The playground (text-fig. 28, p. 384) consists of a space 
about four and a half feet in diameter, shaped like a saucer 
and lined with moss. In the centre of the saucer and round 
the stem of a bush is a loose bundle of twigs with no 
openings and about a foot and a half in height. The three 
playgrounds which I saw were situated on the summits of 
ridges where they could be easily seen by a traveller, as the 
native tracks as a rule follow the tops of ridges. I have 
not been able to find out what bird makes them, but have 
no doubt that they are formed by a different species to the 
maker of that first described *. 
* [A similar playground has been described and figured by Mr. De Vis 
* in one of his reports on British New Guinea (1890-91), and is there 
attributed to Amblyornis subalaris.—EpD. | 
