342 



PERCHING BIRDS. 



and would often escape notice were it not for the harsh grating note with 

 which it receives the intrusion of a stranger into its haunts. When disturbed 

 it takes to the topmost branches of the loftiest trees, and frequently flies off 

 to another neighbourhood. Gould states that he found several of the bowers or 

 runs of this bird during his journey into the interior of New South Wales, both 

 on the plains studded with small trees and in the brushes clothing the lower hills ; 



SPOTTED BOWER-BIRDS AT HOME (i nat. size). 



these were considerably longer and more avenue-like than those of the satin 

 bower-bird, being in many instances 3 feet in length. " They are outwardly 

 built of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that their heads 

 nearly meet ; the decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania 

 of small mammalia and other bones, bleached by exposure to the rays of the sun 

 or from the camp-fires of the natives. Evident indications of high instinct are 

 manifest throughout the whole of the bower and decorations formed by this 



