340 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



most favourable example of a savage, does not erect a building 

 merely for the purpose of amusement, and would perhaps fail to 

 comprehend that such an edifice could be needed. Such a task 

 is left to the civilized races, and it is somewhat startling to find 

 that in erecting a ball-room, or an assembly room, or any similar 

 building, we have been long anticipated by a bird which was 

 unknown until within the last few years. Truly, nothing is new 

 imder the sun. 



The ball-room, or "bower," which this bird builds is a very 

 remarkable erection. Its general form can be seen by reference 

 to the illustration, but the method by which it is constructed 

 can only be learned by watching the feathered architect at work. 

 Fortunately there are several specimens of this bird at the 

 Zoological Gardens, and I have often been much interested in 

 seeing the bird engaged in its labours. 



Whether it works smartly or not in its native land I cannot 

 say, but it certainly does not hurry itself in this country. It 

 begins by weaving a tolerably firm platform of small twigs, 

 which looks as if the bird had been trying to make a door mat 

 and had nearly succeeded. It then looks for some long and 

 rather slender twigs, and pushes their bases into the platform, 

 working them tightly into its substance, and giving them such 

 an inward inclination that, when they are fixed at opposite sides 

 of the platform, their tips cross each other, and form a simple 

 arch. As these twigs are set along the platform on both sides 

 the bird gradually makes an arched alley, extending variably 

 both in length and height. 



"When the bower is completed, the reader may well ask the 

 use to which it can be put. It is not a nest, and I believe that 

 the real nest of this bird has not yet been discovered. It serves 

 as an assembly-room, in which a number of birds take their 

 amusement. Not only do the architects use it, but many birds 

 of both sexes resort to it, and continually run through and 

 round it, chasing one another in a very sportive fashion. 



While they are thus amusing themselves, they utter a curious, 

 deep, and rather resonant note. Indeed, my attention was first 

 attracted to the living Bower Bird by this note. One day as I was 

 passing the great aviary in the Zoological Gardens, I was startled 

 by a note with which I was quite unacquainted, and which I 

 thought must have issued from the mouth of a parrot. Presently, 



