12 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA 
many weird movements ; like Starlings, they make the same chattering 
noise while on the wing. An exceptionally noisy species, and an excellent 
mimic. In certain districts it is known as “Whirlwind-bird.” It breeds 
in colonies in trees, chiefly tall white mangrove and Moreton Bay ash- 
trees. Food: native fruits, principally wild nutmegs from which the 
mace only is eaten; also insects, often caught on the wing. 
Nest . — A large, domed structure, rather oval in shape, with an 
entrance at one side, constructed chiefly of hard twisted tendrils of 
creeping plants ; lined with portions of palm leaves, and a quantity of hair- 
like fibre. Suspended from the limb of a tree, usually in or close to 
dense scrub. As many as two hundred nests have been counted hanging 
in a tree. 
Eggs . — Three or four, pale bluish-white, spotted and speckled, chiefly 
at the larger end, with reddish-brown, dull purple, and dull purplish-grey. 
Breeding-season : August to December. 
8. Regent Bower-bird Sericulus chrysocephalus Lewin — 8A. Female 
Scr-ic'-ii-lus — Gk, sericos, silken : chrys-o-cepti-al-us — Gk, chrysos , golden ; 
Gk, cepliale, head. 
Distribution. — South-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New 
South Wales. 
Notes . — Also called Regent-bird. Mostly in pairs or flocks accord- 
ing to the season of the year. The flocks usually consist of one fully 
piumaged male to twenty or more females and immature males. Generally 
observed feeding upon the fruits and berries of native trees, vines, and 
shrubs. The call-note is a guttural “Te-ar” long drawn out; when alarmed 
the bird utters a squeaky “Whit-whit.” This species builds a bower or 
playground — a cleared space about 4 feet in diameter, in the centre of 
which it constructs a bed of sticks, well trampled down, erects two walls, 
each about 8 inches long and 6 inches high, and then decorates the bower 
with empty land-snail shells and a few leaves and berries. Often the 
bower is built without a bed of sticks, the materials of the walls being 
pushed into the damp soil. Food: insects, native fruits, and berries; also 
cultivated fruits. 
Nest . — A rather deep, saucer-shaped structure, composed of thin dry 
sticks and twigs, lined with thinner twigs. Usually placed in a mass of 
foliage or vines, at heights up to 40 feet from the ground. 
Eggs . — Usually two. yellowish-stone colour or faint-greyish or dull 
white, beautifully and delicately marked and marbled with lines and 
hair-like irregular markings of olive-brown, blackish-brown, and dull 
purplish-grey; some have the markings predominating around the larger 
end, in others, these are confined to the centre. Breeding-season: October 
to the end of January. 
9. Golden Bower-bird Prionodura newtoniana De Vis — 9 A. Female 
Pr\ -on-o-dur -a — Gk, prion , saw; Gk, ura ( oura ), tail: newtoniana — 
Alfred Newton (1829-1907), Professor of Zoology, Cambridge. 
