34 o PERCHING BIRDS, 



North Australia, Maniicodia of North Australia and the adjacent Papuan Islands, 

 and Lycocorax of the Moluccan and Papuan Islands, must here be passed without 

 further mention. 



* The Bower-Birds. 

 Family PTILONORHYNCHID^E. 



By no means easy of definition, the bower-birds, most of which are, however, 

 characterised by building the structures from which they take their name, have 

 given rise to some difference of opinion among ornithologists as to their affinities, 

 and they have been included in the preceding family, although they are now 

 placed by Dr. Sharpe in his catalogue of the birds in the Museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons between the birds of paradise and the starlings. While 

 the so-called regent -bird approximates to the former group in the nature of 

 the feathers on the head, and the gorgeous coloration of its plumage, the true 

 bower-birds are more thrush-like in appearance. The group is mainly peculiar to 

 Australia, although one Australian genus extends to the Papuan Islands, and 

 another genus (Amblyornis), with a single species, inhabits New Guinea only. 



They all have the base of the beak fully feathered, and the foot of the normal 

 Passerine type. In the position of the flexure of the lower mandible, immediately 

 below the aperture of the nostrils, the skull resembles that of the birds of paradise ; 

 but, in a slight backward projection of the hinder extremity of the mandible, they 

 approximate to the starlings, in which it is more developed, while the flexure 

 is further back. 



The satin bower-bird (Ptilonorhynclms holosericeu-s) is the type 

 of a genus characterised by the short, convex, and laterally com- 

 pressed beak, in which the nostrils are basal and concealed by the silky 

 feathers of the forehead ; the wings being pointed, the tail somewhat rounded, 

 and the feet stout and furnished with moderately long claws. These bower- 

 birds belong to the eastern and northern districts of Australia. 



The localities frequented by the satin bower-birds are the luxuriant and 

 thickly foliaged brushes stretching along the coast of New South Wales. Their 

 popular name owes its origin to their extraordinary habit of constructing 

 what the colonists commonly call " runs," which are used by the birds as a 

 playing - house, and are constructed in avenue form, built of pieces of stick 

 or grass and adorned with stones, bright-coloured shells, and even bleached 

 bones, as well as the blue tail-feathers of certain parrakeets. The natives 

 are so well acquainted with the propensity of these birds for carrying off any 

 attractive object, that they always search the runs for any small article that 

 may have been dropped in the bush ; and in one Gould found a small neatly- 

 worked stone tomahawk, together with some slips of blue cotton rags, which the 

 birds had doubtless picked up at a deserted encampment of the natives. This 

 is a stationary species, but roams from one part of the district to another in 

 search of food. It appears to have particular times in the day for feeding, and 

 when thus engaged may be approached within a few feet, although at other times 

 the old males are shy and watchful. In autumn these bower-birds associate in 



