2' 6 A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF PRIONODURA NEWTON* I ANA, 



them to be of unusual size and structure. From their notes and 

 sketches it would appear that the bower is usually built on the 

 ground between two trees, or between a tree and a bush. It is- 

 constructed of small sticks and twigs. — These are piled up almost 

 horizontally around one of the trees in the form of a pyramid, which 

 rises to a height varying from four to six feet — a similar pile of 

 inferior height, about eighteen inches, is then built round the foot 

 of the other tree — the intervening space is arched over with stems 

 rof climbing plants, the piles are decorated with white moss, and the 

 arch with similar moss mingled with clusters of green fruit resembling 

 wil l grapes. Through and over the covered run play the birds, 

 •young and oi l, of both sexes. A still more interesting and charac- 

 tereatic feature in the play-ground of this bird remains. The 

 completion of the massive bower so laboriously attained is not 

 sufficient to arrest the architectural impulse. Scattered immediately 

 around are a number of dwarf hut-like structures — 1 gunyahs,' they 

 are called by Broadbent, who says he found five of them in a space 

 of ten feet diameter, and observes that they give the spot exactly 

 the appearance of a miniature black's camp. These seem to be 

 built by bending towards each other strong stems of standing grass 

 and capping them with a horizontal thatch of light twigs. In and 

 out and around the 'gunyahs.' and from one to another, the birds in 

 their play pursue each other to their hearts content. 



The usual cry of Prionodura is according to Mr. Meston. 

 .deceptively like that of a Cat Bird, 1 ut with a promptly recogniz- 

 able difference. Mr. Broadbent, while watching a bower heard, as 

 lie had often previously heard, a croaking 'going on at a great rate/ 

 mm h like that of a tree-frog, and on investigating its origin dis- 

 covered that it proceeded from a fine old male sitting amidst the 

 foliage overhanging its camp. Prionodura shares with four other 

 species of bower birds the wild fruits so abundant in the gorges of 

 its mountain home. Others of its associates are the tooth-billed 

 Cat -bird, Scenopajus dentirostris. Ram. rufous Crow-shrike 

 Oactieus rufescens, m, and hissing Shrike-thrush, Colluricincia 

 boweri, Ram. 



