412 THE BIRDS OF AUSTEALIA 



len^h and one in breadth, are of a somewhat oval form, slightly 

 compressed, rounded below and above, tapering to a neck, by 

 the end of which they were suspended; the opening is situated 

 in the centre of the widest part; they are almost entirely com- 

 posed of portions of the stem and the long tendrils of a climbing 

 plant (Cissus) matted and woven together, and lined with finer 

 pieces of the same, a few leaves (generally strips of Pandanus 

 leaf) the hair-like fibres of a palm {Caryota cereus) , and similar 

 materials; the eggs, usually two but often three in number, are 

 an inch long by eight-tenths of an inch broad, and of a bluish- 

 grey, speckled with reddish-pink, chiefiy at the larger end ; some 

 have scarcely any markings, others a few minute dots only. The 

 note of the bird is short, sharp and shrill, and resembles 'twee- 

 twee' repeated, as if angrily, several times in quick succession. 

 On the tree above-mentioned the nests were about fifty in 

 number, often solitary, but usually three or four together in a 

 cluster — sometimes so closely placed as to touch each other." 

 (Macgillivray) . The birds feed on fruits, and underneath the 

 nesting tree the ground is literally covered with the seed stones 

 of the fruit they have eaten. The ground is also infested with 

 minute red ticks, which quickly find their way on to any 

 unwary intruder. They crawl up to about the waist, and burrow 

 under one's skin to their host's great discomfort. 



Family Ptilonorhynchidoe. Bower-birds. 

 Genus 'Ptiloiiorhynchus. 

 Bill higher than broad at nostrils, with a lateral sub- 

 terminal notch in the upper mandible. Nostrils entirely covered 

 with silky, dense and recurved feathers. 



The Satin Bower-bird. 



Ptilonorhyndms violaceus. 



East Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. 



An old male has the whole of the plumage of a deep shining blue- 

 black, resembling satin, the wing and tail quills of a truer black; the 

 iris light blue with a circle of red around the pupil. He is probably 

 between six and seven years old when he has assumed this blue colour, 

 till then like the female. Only one blue bird is usually seen with a 



