CHLAMYDODERA MACULATA (Gould). 
Spotted Bower-bird. 
Calodera maculata, Gould, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 106. — Id. Syn. B. Austr. part i. (1837). 
Chlamydera maculata, Gould, B. Austr. part i. (1837, cancelled). — Id. op. cit. iv. pi. 8 (1841). — Gray, Gen. B. ii. 
p. 225 (1846). — Bp. Consp. Ay. i. p. 370 (1850). — Higgles, Orn. Austr. i. p. 52, pi. 52 (c. 1867). 
—Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 294, no. 4340 (1869). 
Chlamydodera maculata, Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i. p. 212 (Oct. 1851). — Gould, Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 450 (1865). 
— Ramsay, Ibis, 1866, p. 329. — Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pi. xxx. (1873). — Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 605. 
— Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 188 (1878). — Sharpe, Cat. B, Brit. Mus. vi. p. 389 (1881). — 
Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. vii. p. 409, pi. iii. fig. 2 (1883). — North, op. cit. (2) i. pp. 1157, 
1165 (1887). — Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888). — North, Descr. Cat. Nests and Eggs 
Austr. B. p. 178, pi. xi. fig. 5 (1889). — Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894). 
PtilorJiynchus maculatus, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 119 (1867). 
The Spotted Bower-bird is distinguished by the reddish spots or bars at the tips of the feathers of the upper 
surface, which give the bird a strongly mottled appearance, as well as by the dusky spots and bars on the 
flanks and throat. The head is rufous brown, varied with blackish edgings and spots on the feathers, and 
the male has a lilac band on the nape. 
Mr. E. P. Ramsay, in his ‘Tabular List of Australian Birds,’ gives the range of the species as from Cape 
York and Rockingham Bay to Port Denison, the Dawson River, and the Wide Bay district, as well as 
New South Wales, the interior of Australia to Victoria, and South Australia. Mr. A. G. North also adds 
the Clarence River district as a habitat of the species, so that its range is complete from Cape York to 
New South Wales and thence west to Victoria and South Australia. 
In his ‘ Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and 
Tasmania,’ Mr. North writes : — “ Our knowledge of the range of this species has recently been extended 
to Cape York. Previously Rockingham Bay was considered its northern limit on the coast, and the 
Murray district in Victoria and South Australia its most southern range. The interior provinces are the 
stronghold of this species, where it is found plentifully dispersed all over the Lachlan and Darling River 
districts. It also occurs inland eighty miles west from Rockhampton.” 
Gould has given the following account of the species in his ‘ Handbook to the Birds of Australia’ : — 
“ During my journey into the interior of New South Wales, I observed this bird to be tolerably abundant 
at Brezi on the river Mokai to the northward of the Liverpool Plains : it is also equally numerous in all the 
low scrubby ranges in the neighbourhood of the Namoi, as well as in the open brushes which intersect the 
plains on its borders ; and collections from Moreton Bay generally contain examples ; still from the extreme 
shyness of its disposition, the bird is seldom seen by ordinary travellers, and it must be under very peculiar 
circumstances that it can be approached sufficiently close to observe its colours. The Spotted Bower-bird 
has a harsh, grating, scolding note, which is generally uttered when its haunts are intruded on, and by this 
means its presence is detected when it would otherwise escape observation. When disturbed it takes to the 
topmost branches of the loftiest trees, and frequently flies off to another neighbourhood. 
“ In many of its actions and in the greater part of its economy tnucli similarity exists between this species 
and the Satin Bower-bird, particularly in the curious habit of constructing an artificial bower or playing-place. 
I was so far fortunate as to discover several of these bowers during my journey in the interior, the finest of 
which I succeeded in bringing to England ; it is now in the British Museum. The situations of these runs 
or bowers are much varied : I found them both on the plains studded with Myalls {Acacia pendula) and other 
small trees, and in the brushes clothing the lower hills. They are considerably longer and more avenue- 
like than those of the Satin Bower-bird, being in many instances three feet in length. They are outwardly 
built of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that their heads nearly meet ; the 
decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania of small mammalia and other bones bleached 
by exposure to the rays of the sun or from the camp-fires of the natives. Evident indications of high instinct 
are manifest throughout the bower and decorations formed by this species, particularly in the manner in 
which the stones are placed within the bower, apparently to keep the grasses with which it is lined fixed 
