280 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
that some animals exhibit emotions of the beautiful. 
The following is Mr. Grould’s description, in extenso , of 
the habits of the bird in question : — 
The extraordinary bower-like structure, alluded to in my 
remarks on the genus, first came under my notice in the Sydney 
Museum, to which an example had been presented by Charles 
Cox, Esq. . . . On visiting the cedar bushes of the Liverpool 
range, I discovered several of these bowers or playing-houses on 
the ground, under the shelter of the branches of the overhang- 
ing trees, in the most retir ed part of the forest ; they differed 
considerably in size, some being a third larger than others. The 
base consists of an extensive and rather convex platform of 
sticks firmly interwoven, on the centre of which the bower itself 
is built. This, like the platform on which it is placed, and with 
which it is interwoven, is formed of sticks and twigs, but of a 
more slender and flexible description, the tips of the twigs being 
so arranged as to curve inwards and nearly meet at the top ; in 
the interior the materials are so placed that the forks of tho 
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 Fennantian parakeets, bleached bones and 
shells of snails, &c.; some of the feathers are inserted among 
the twigs, while others with the bones and shells are strewed 
near the 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 bush . I myself 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 rag, which the birds had doubtless picked up at a deserted 
encampment of the natives. 
It has now been clearly ascertained that these curious 
bowers are merely sporting-places in which the sexes 
meet, when the males display their finery, and exhibit 
many remarkable actions ; and so inherent is this habit, 
that the living examples, which have been from time to 
time sent to this country, continue it even in captivity . 1 
Those belonging to the Zoological Society have constructed 
s bee Darwin, Descent of Man, pp. 92, 381, 406, 413. 
