32 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Peculiar Habit of the Bower Bird 

 of New Guinea. 



HE various habits practiced by birds 

 in their daily life, and their often pe- 

 culiar economy, render our feathered 

 friends, to the observant naturalist, the 

 most interesting of beings. Each family 

 has its own customs ; often a genus is known 

 by some especial habit, and not infrequent- 

 ly a species can be recognized by some cu- 

 rious manner it may have of carrying itself 

 among its fellows, or a particular finish it 

 may give to its nest. As 1 have noticed 

 that among your contributors there are 

 many keen observers of bird life, it has oc- 

 curred to me that perhaps it may not prove 

 uninteresting if I give an account that has 

 but lately reached Europe of the strange 

 habits of a certain bird in New Guinea, 

 which will read perhaps more like fiction 

 than sober truth, but of its perfect accura- 

 cy, there is no reason whatever to harbor 

 a doubt. It has been for a long time known 

 to ornithologists that a certain genus of birds 

 {chlcmiyodira) existed in Australia which 

 were accustomed to erect structures in the 

 shape of tunnels. These were built of reeds 

 and twigs, and were sometimes a couple of 

 feet, perhaps more, in length. 'J'hat these 

 could not answer in any way for incubation 

 was evident at a glance, and it was a puz- 

 zle for a long time what use they could be 

 put to by a bird. The ground in front of 

 the so-called "bowers" was usually covered 

 with shells of different kinds, bones, and 

 frequently feathers of various colors, gen- 

 erally very bright ones. After patient 

 watching, it was ascertained that the only 

 reason the birds erected these "bowers" was 

 to use them as play-houses^ and the little 

 creatures were seen amusing themselves by 

 chasing each other in and through them in 

 a sort of feathered game of " tag," and the 

 shells and feathers were only so much or- 

 namentation to their play-grounds. That 

 they were not nests, was sufficiently proved 

 by finding a proper structure with the req- 

 uisite eggs, placed by the birds in a tree. 

 Some three years ago, when engaged upon 



my work on the Birds of Paradise (to which 

 family these "bower-builders" belong), I 

 received from the Director of the Royal 

 Museum in Leyden, Holland, a dull-color- 

 ed curious-looking bird, which had lately 

 been obtained in New Guinea, and which 

 I at once saw belonged to a genus hitherto 

 unknown. It was evidently a relative of 

 the "bower bird," differing essentially, 

 however, by characteristics not necessary 

 to describe here, and I made up my mind 

 it would also build a " bower," though of 

 course what kind of a structure it might be 

 I could not even conjecture, and besides 

 mentioning my belief I was obliged to pub- 

 lish my book without further details. With- 

 in the past three years, however, some very 

 adventurous Italian explorers have been in- 

 vestigating New Guinea, mainly in search 

 of natural history specimens, and one of 

 them, Signor Beccari, found this little brown 

 bird, which I had called Amblyorius inor- 

 nata^ and also discovered its "bower." 

 This is a most extraordinary affair, and 

 consists of a perfectly circular cabin, built 

 principally of the dry twigs of an epiphtous 

 orchid {^Dendrohiurti)^ measuring a little 

 over three feet in diameter, and supported 

 by a single centred pillar. Before the en- 

 trance is a beautiful garden, of rather lar- 

 ger dimensions than the cabin, made of the 

 greenest moss, and ornamented from time 

 to time with brilliantly colored flowers and 

 fruits, such as flowers of a lovely species of 

 Yaccinixmn. This wonderful habit of the 

 bird is so well known to the Malay hunters 

 that it is called TahauTxCibou or Gardener 

 by them. No more interesting fact has 

 been learned in field ornithology for many 

 years, and it is wonderful to know that a 

 bird, for its own amusement, has the instinct 

 and ability to build a house with a central 

 support for the roof, and then the taste to 

 beautify its surroundings with gaily cokn-ed 

 flowers. In respect to this particular spe- 

 cies it proves two things, that skill is inde- 

 pendent of strength, and that one need not 

 be handsome to appreciate beauty, for the 

 bird does not possess a single gay-colored 

 feather in its body. D. G. Elliot. 



In Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun. 



