l6 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



My own sleeping room looked directly into this arrange- 

 ment, and through my window I witnessed, at five o'clock 

 on spring and summer mornings, the first imported Argus 

 Pheasant display himself by curving his huge wings over 

 his head like a triumphal arch, as he would have done had 

 he had a mate, which unfortunately was not the case. 



Here also I witnessed the superb Impeyan Pheasant 

 court his mate and display his gorgeous metallic tints 

 with staid but grotesque demeanour. These also were the 

 first pair seen alive, and they and their progeny were sub- 

 sequently housed in Royal accommodation, as they ulti- 

 mately went to the Queen. In a neighbouring compart- 

 ment lived a bachelor Brush Turkey, Tallegalla Lathami 

 or Mound Bird from Australia. His occupation for several 

 weeks was to scrape together, all the leaves and loose 

 vegetation I could supply him with, scraping doubtless 

 in fond anticipation of the dawn of some Queen Tale- 

 galla upon his solitude : unhappily it was a case of " love's 

 labour lost," although the scene has been faithfully set 

 forth by the skilled hands of Mr. Henry Reynolds, the 

 lamented Taxidermist, to the Museum, lately deceased, 

 where other examples may be seen, of how various 

 mound making birds prepare for the hatching of their 

 eggs by the heat evolved from the decomposition of vege- 

 table matter. 



Time fails me to dwell upon other inmates of this 

 Aviary : of Tree Pigeons which refused the most enticing 

 dove-like food, when it was placed before them on the 

 ground where all the other species condescended to feed, 

 and like spoiled children would not eat till placed accord- 

 ing to their accustomed habits, viz., on a level with the 

 tree boughs several feet from the ground : of the beautiful 

 Australian Pigeon, Ocyphaps lophotes, or the corpulent 

 Wonga-wonga and Nicobar, or the bronze wings, with 



