CHLAMYDODERA GUTTATA, Gould. 
Large-spotted Bower-bird. 
Chlamydera guttata, Gould, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 162.— Id. B. Austr. Suppl. pi. 35 (1867).— Gray, Hand-1. B. i. 
p. 294, no. 4340 (1869). 
Chlamydodera guttata, Gould, Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 452 (1865).— Elliot, Monogr. Parad., Intr. p. 22 (1873).— 
Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 188 (1878).— Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 39 0 (1881).— 
North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. (2) i. p. 1159 (1887).— Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888).— 
Stirling & Zietz, Trans. R. Soc. S. Austr. xvi. p. 157 (1893).— Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn, Club, iv. p. xiv 
(1894). — North, Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Centr. Austr. part ii. Zool. Aves, p. 90 (1896). 
This species differs from C. metadata in having the crown of the head silvery brown, slightly tinged with 
rufous bars, the bases to the feathers being black. Mr. North, describing the two males brought hack by 
the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, says: — “Two examples of this distinct and well-marked species 
were obtained at Glen Edith. Both are males and apparently not quite adult, or in the moult, for one 
has only a faint indication of the beautiful lilac nuchal plumes, and they are but slightly more developed 
in the other specimen. This species is readily distinguished from its near ally, C. maculata of Eastern 
and Southern Australia, by the feathers of the upper surface being blackish brown instead of dark brown — 
rendering the spots, which are paler, more conspicuous— and by the absence of the earthy-brown band 
between the nuchal plumes and the mantle. The head and neck, too, are much darker, and the tips of 
the wing-coverts and secondaries are pale yellowish buff, instead of tawny buff.” 
The following is the note on the species made by Mr. Keartland, the naturalist to the Horn Expedition : — - 
“Wherever the ‘native fig’ trees existed, these birds were found. They were generally very shy, and only 
two specimens were obtained. Several bowers seen bore a close resemblance to those of C, metadata. At 
Owen Springs we were informed that in dry weather these birds come to the water-buckets under the 
veranda to drink, and become quite fearless of the presence of persons sitting close by.” 
The species was first met with by Mr. Stuart during his journey across the Australian continent from 
Adelaide to the Victoria River, and the head of an adult male obtained by him is in the Gould collection in 
the British Museum, in which institution is a perfect skin of a female collected somewhere in North-western 
Australia. 
It is doubtless this species, as Gould has pointed out, which is referred to in his ‘ Travels ’ (vol. i. 
pp. 196, 245) by Sir George Grey, who met with it at the summit of one of the sandstone-ranges forming 
the watershed of the streams flowing into the Glenelg and Prince Regent’s rivers. He writes : — “ We fell in 
with a very remarkable nest, or what appeared to me to be such. We had previously seen several of them, 
and they had always afforded us food for conjecture as to the agent and purpose of such singular structures. 
This very curious sort of nest, which was frequently found by myself and other individuals of the party, not 
only along the sea-shore, but in some instances at a distance of six or seven miles from it, I once conceived 
must have belonged to a kangaroo, until I was informed that it was the run or playing-place of a species of 
Chlamyelodera. These structures were formed of dead grass and parts of bushes, sunk a slight depth into 
two parallel furrows of sandy soil, and then nicely arched above. But the most remarkable fact connected 
with them was that they were always full of broken sea-shells, large heaps of which protruded from each 
extremity. In one instance, in a bower the most remote from the sea that we discovered, one of the men 
of the party found and brought to me the stone of some fruit which had evidently been rolled in the sea ; 
these stones he found lying in a heap in the nest, and they are now in my possession.” 
The following is the description of the species given by me in my sixth volume of the ‘ Catalogue of 
Birds ’ : — 
“Very similar to C. maculata, but altogether darker above, and having the neck of the same dark brown 
as the back, with smaller tawny buff spots; the under surface of the body is also darker. Total length 
12 inches, culmen T05, wing 5’6, tail 425, tarsus U6. 
“The head of the male, collected by Mr. Stuart during his travels into the interior of Australia, likewise 
points to the species being distinct from C. maculata. The lilac band is much richer in tint, and the head 
shows the whole of the feathers with silvery tips, instead of only a few thus marked as in C. maculata. The 
feathers of the hind-neck resemble those of the female, and seem to indicate that the species has no 
band of earthy brown between the nape and the mantle as in its near ally.” 
The species so closely resembles C. maculata that a separate figure has been considered unnecessary. 
