twigs are always presented outwards, by which arrangement not the slightest obstruction is offered to the 
passage of the birds. The interest of this curious bower is much enhanced by the manner in which 
it is decorated with the most gaily-coloured articles that can be collected, such as the blue tail-feathers 
of the Rose-hill and Pennantian Parrakeets, bleached bones, the shells of snails, &c. ; some of the feathers 
are inserted among the twigs, while others with the bones and shells are strewed about near tbe entrances. 
The propensity of these birds to fly off with any attractive object is so well known to the natives, that they 
always search the runs for any small missing article that may have been accidentally dropped in the 
brush. I myself once found at the entrance of one of them a small neatly-worked stone tomahawk, of 
an inch and a half in length, together with some slips of blue cotton rags, which the birds had doubtless 
picked up at a deserted encampment of the natives. 
“ It has been clearly ascertained that these curious bowers are merely sporting-places in which the sexes 
meet, and the males display their finery, and exhibit many remarkable actions ; and so inherent is 
this habit, that the living examples, which have from time to time been sent to this country, continue 
it even in captivity. Those belonging to the Zoological Society have constructed their bowers, decorated 
and kept them in repair, for several successive years. 
“ In a letter received from the late F. Strange, he says — ‘ My aviary is now tenanted by a pair of 
Satin-birds, which for the last two months have been constantly engaged in constructing bowers. Both 
sexes assist in their erection, but the male is the principal workman. At times the male will chase 
the female all over the aviary, then go to the hower, pick up a gay feather or a large leaf, utter a curious 
kind of note, set all his feathers erect, run round the bower, and become so excited that his eyes appear 
ready to start from his head, and he continues opening first one wing and then the other, uttering 
a low whistling note, and, like the domestic Cock, seems to be picking up something from the ground, 
until at last the female goes gently towards him, when, after two turns round her, he suddenly makes a 
dash, and the scene ends.’ ” 
Mr. A. J. North writes to me : — “ I forward you a photograph that may be of use to you in the 
preparation of your ‘ Monograph of the Ptilon orhynchi (I ce , &c.’ It is that of a perfect bower of Ptilono- 
rhynchus violaceus in the possession of the Trustees of the Australian Museum. It was found on the ground 
in the scrub near the Jerulan Caves, N. S. Wales, in December last, by Mr. J. C. Wiburd, and is built on a 
platform of sticks and twigs about three inches in thickness, and is composed entirely of thin twigs slightly 
arched, some of which meet or cross each other at the top. Near the trout of it, on the right side of the 
bower, is a tail-feather of Platycercus elegans. It measures over all 2 feet in length, 1 foot in height, and 
10 inches in breadth ; internally 8 inches in height by 4 inches in breadth. Scattered about the entrance are 
