422 THE BIBDS OF AUSTRALIA 



this bower was noticed three birds, all drab-coloured, were 

 playing in it: each carried an empty Snail's shell, and in turn 

 went into the bower, and after bobbing up and down a few times 

 with half -opened wings would toss the shell out over the wall to 

 be picked up by one of the others, which would drop its own for 

 the- purpose. The two birds remaining outside performed 

 various antics, brushing the ground with their wings, as a 

 consequence of which the soil within the enclosure of cane roots 

 was quite bare. I visited the bower several times subsequently, 

 but the birds were not at home, and all I noticed was that three 

 or four young purplish-tinted leaves were placed in the centre, 

 and the three shells were laid near. I could see that each day 

 the withering leaves were replaced by freshly plucked ones." 

 The ornaments are chiefly land-shells and berries. The nest is 

 merely a frail platform of sticks situated in a bunch of creepers, 

 and the eggs resemble very much those of the Spotted Bower- 

 bird, btit the ground colour instead of being greenish is a yellow 

 tint. 



Genus Prionodura. 

 Bill short, shallow, with a feeble tooth in the upper mandible, 

 and a regularly arched culmen compressed over the nostrils. 

 Nostrils sunken, subbasal, partly hidden by plumes and 

 surrounded by a few weak bristles. 



The Golden Bower-bird. 



Prionodura newtoniana. 

 North-east Queensland. 



Male, golden-yellow with a broad crest on the crown of the head; 

 female, olive-green. The colours rapidly fade in strong light. 



Mr. G. Sharp, with the help of the Aborigines, was the first 

 to discover the nests and eggs of the Golden or Newton's Bower- 

 bird. He says : ' ' Some of the bowers on the one side were over 

 eight feet in height, and several of these stick-formed walls were 

 beautifully arched over the lower side. It was amusing to watch 

 a bird perched on the bough or stick, that runs crosswise near the 

 bottom of these structures, stretch out as far as it could to 

 ornament the inside of the higher wall with a flower, usually an 



