238



Mr. G. A. ETeumann,



Scrub-birds are protected—we commenced operations. We bad

brought with us loquats, apples and bananas, and displayed these

invitingly on the boughs of likely trees. By-and-bye we had the

satisfaction of seeing Cat birds, Regent and Satin bower birds, as

well as other fruit eaters, and Honey-suckers, enjoying the dinner

set before them, and later on a number of them had to leave their

happy homes to enjoy themselves or make the best of it in our

aviaries in Sydney. Of course it took weeks to accustom the birds

to overcome their shyness and eat the fruit set out for them, and the

catching was not as easy as falling from the proverbial log, but the

main point w T as that we got them. The Regent birds in their

gorgeous costume of satin black and orange are, next to the Rifle¬

men, the cream of the bush. They are easily kept on fruit, raw

beef, bread and milk and cake, and will soon learn to take a meal¬

worm from the fingers ; indeed, all my Scrub-birds do well on this

simple diet. The hen is brown, mottled white, with a black cap, as

also are the young males, and it is said that it takes three years for

a male to fully moult out. Personally I am inclined to think it

takes longer, by observations on my own birds. The hen and young

birds have dark brown eyes with black pupils and black beaks; the

young cock in an advanced stage has the eyes of the adult male, a

straw yellow, and the beak is also light horn colour, whilst over the

brown plumage is a hue or bloom of yellow which is missing in the

hen. I saw in an article in the Avicultural Magazine by a prominent

aviculturist that his Satin Bowser-birds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus )

would not become tame, and were to him unattractive. This

gentleman must have got hold of a very old and recalcitrant pair.

Those in the aviaries of my friend and my own are not only tame,

but actually build bowers, and any bit of blue glass, blue ribbon or

blue marble is greatly appreciated by them. It seems a remarkable

thing this love of theirs for blue. I ventured the opinion once that

the reason of their love for blue is probably because the male sees

not only the blueish purple eyes of his own sex but also takes much

notice of the lighter shade, more of a dark heliotrope, in the eyes of

his lady-love. My theory has not met with general acceptance, but

unless someone gives a more plausible theory, I hold on to mine !

This reminds me of an incident worth recording. On the northern



