428 THE SPOTTED BOWER BIED. 



The chief peculiarity for which this bird is famous is a kiud of bower or arbour, 

 which it constructs from twigs in a manner almost unique among the feathered tribes. 

 The form of this bower may be seen in the illustration, and the mode of construction, 

 together with the use to which the bird puts the building, may be learned from 

 Mr. Gould's account. 



" On visiting the Cedar Brushes of the Liverpool range, I discovered several of these 

 bowers or playing-places ; they are usually placed under the shelter of the branches of 

 some overhanging tree in the most retired part of the forest ; they differ considerably in 

 size, some being larger, while others are much smaller. The base consists of an exterior 

 and rather convex platform of sticks, firmly interwoven, on the centre of wliich the bower 

 itself is built. This, like the platform on which it is placed and with which it is inter- 

 woven, is formed of sticks and twigs, but of a more ■slender and flexible description, the 

 tips of the twigs being so arranged as to curve inwards and nearly meet at the top ; in the 

 interior of the bower, the materials are so placed that the forks of the twigs are always 

 presented outwards, by which arrangement not the slightest obstruction is offered to the 

 passage of the birds. 



For what purpose these curious bowers are made is not yet, perhaps, fully understood ; 

 they are certainly not used as a nest, but as a place of resort for many individuals of both 

 sexes, who when there assembled run through and round the bower in a sportive and 

 playful manner, and that so frequently tliat it is seldom entirely deserted. 



The interest of this curious bower is much enhanced by the manner in which it is 

 decorated, at and near the entrance, with the most gaily coloured articles that can be 

 collected, such as the blue tail-feathers of the Eose Hill and Lory Parrots, bleached bones, 

 the shells of snails, &c. Some of the feathers are stuck in among the twigs, while others, 

 with the bones and shells, are strewed about near the entrance. The propensity of these 

 birds to fly off with any attractive object is so well known, that the blacks always search 

 the runs for any missing article." 



So persevering are these birds in carrying off anything that may strike their fancy, 

 that they have been known to steal a stone tomahawk, some blue cotton rags, and an old 

 tobacco-pipe. Two of these bowers are now in the nest room of the British Museum, and 

 at tne Zoological Gardens the Bower Bird may be seen hard at work at its surface, fastening 

 the twigs or adorning the entrances, and ever and anon running through the edifice with 

 a curious loud full cry that always attracts the attention of a passer-by. The Satin Bower 

 Bird bears confinement well, and although it will not breed in captivity, it is very 

 industrious in building bowers for recreation. 



The food of this bird seems to consist chiefly of fruit and berries, as the stomachs of 

 several specimens were found to contain nothing but vegetable remains. Those which are 

 caged in Australia are fed upon rice, fruit, moistened bread, and a very little meat at 

 intervals, a diet on which they thrive well. It is rather a gregarious bird, assembling in 

 flocks led by a few adult males in their full plumage, and a great number of young males 

 and females. They are said to migrate from the Murrumbidgee in the summer, and to 

 return in the autumn. 



The plumage of the adult male is a very glossy satin-like purple, so deep as to appear 

 black in a faint light, but the young males and the females are almost entirely of an olive- 

 green. 



Haedly less beautiful in form and plumage, and quite as interesting in habits, the 

 Spotted Bower Bird now comes before our notice. 



This species is an inhabitant of the plains in the interior of New South Wales, and is 

 thought by Mr. Gould to be sufficiently distinct from the preceding species to warrant 

 its introduction into a separate genus. Of this species Mr. Gould makes the following 

 valuable remarks : — 



" It is as exclusively an inhabitant of the forests in the interior of the country, as the 

 Satin Bower Bird is of the bushes between the mountain ranges of the coast. Erom the 

 extreme shyness of its disposition, the bird is seldom seen by ordinary travellers, and it 

 must be under very peculiar circumstances that it can be approached so as to observe its 



