FEATHERED GARDENEES. 243 



a flat piece of land on a level with the ground about 

 it. Around the trunk of the shrub which it has 

 selected the garden bird proceeds to break ground. 

 The first thing to be done is to carefully clean and 

 level the space chosen. As this would be too much 

 for one bird alone to undertake, it probably receives 

 aid from a number of its companions. An ordinary 

 bird's nest is generally built from suitable material 

 easily found in its immediate vicinity, but that of 

 which the garden bird constructs his summer house 

 must be sought for far and wide. The style of edi- 

 fice erected on the carefully prepared foundation, al- 

 though in every case elaborate and beautiful almost 

 beyond belief, depends upon the particular species of 

 the genus that builds it. In Australia, where the birds 

 are called bower birds, the structure built is an arched 

 tunnel of twigs, skillfully and firmly built and inter- 

 laced, and decorated with all sorts of pretty shells and 

 feathers. 



Speaking of these playhouses of the birds, a recent 

 writer justly says, " Perhaps the whole range of or- 

 nithology does not produce a more singular phenome- 

 non than the fact of a bird building a house merely as 

 a place of amusement, and decorating it as if to mark 

 its design and purpose." 



Without doubt, however, the garden bird of ISTew 

 Guinea surpasses all other birds in constructive abil- 

 ity. Around the trunk of the selected shrub 

 in the center of the prepared space, which it uses 

 as a center pole, the little feathered workman pro- 

 ceeds to build up, from the prettiest mosses it can 



