SCENOPCEUS DENTIROSTRIS, 
Toothed-billed Bower-bird. 
Scenopoeus dentirostris, Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 591. — Id. Proc. Lmn. Soc. New South Wales, ii. p. 188 (1878). 
Only the naturalist who has devoted his life to the pursuit of a particular study, and has spent long years 
in the determination to render his writings on the various interesting subjects he has so long been treating 
as complete as lies in his power, can imagine the feelings of satisfaction with which I contemplate my work 
on the Birds of Australia. The time which I spent in working out the birds of that country is one of the 
most pleasing recollections of a life spent in the pursuit of natural history ; and I cannot but congratulate 
myself on the fact that the additions to the avifauna of that continent have not been very numerous since 
I published my last volume on its ornithology. At the same time it w^ould be vain to suppose that the 
field is exhausted, when such extraordinary new forms as that which is figured on the opposite Plate 
continue to be discovered, constituting, as it does, the type, not only of a new species, but of an entirely new 
genus. No one who looks for one moment at the extraordinary doubly toothed bill of the present bird 
can doubt the propriety of Mr. Ramsay’s instituting a separate genus for so anomalous a bird. 
Nothing is at present known of the habits of this species, or if it really builds a bower ; but Mr. Ramsay 
observes that, like the Catbirds, it clears a large space under the brushwood some nine or ten feet in 
diameter, and ornaments the cleared parts with tufts of gaily tinted leaves and young shoots. The only 
specimens yet procured were shot with a rifle by Inspector Johnstone of Cardwell ; and the habitat is given 
as the Bellenden-Ker range and the dense brushes clothing the steep sides of “ Sea-view range,” on 
the north-east coast of Queensland. 
The following is the description by Mr. Ramsay : — 
“ The whole of the upper surface, wings, and tail rich olive-brown, the Inner webs of the primaries and 
secondaries blackish brown, their margins near the base buflfy white ; under surface of the shoulders yellowish 
buff, with remains of broken bars of blackish brown on the smaller feathers ; the under wing-coverts 
yellowish buff, with cross bars of dull brown ; under primary-coverts buff, crossed more distinctly with dull 
brown ; under surface of primaries and secondaries dark ashy brown, the basal half of the inner margin buff 
tinged with a faint wash of light rufous ; flanks olive-buff ; abdomen buff ; under tail-coverts olive-buff, each 
feather barred with two or more lanceolate marks of dull olive-brown, under surface of the tail dull brown ; 
throat, neck below, chest, and the rest of the; under surface buffy white, each feather margined with olive- 
brown, wdiich becomes lighter and less distinct on the lower parts, and almost obsolete on the flanks and 
abdomen ; on the throat and chest the margins are almost black, and tinged with yellowish olive on the 
sides of the neck and chest, and the buff central portion of a deeper tint ; the under surface has the 
appearance of being broadly streaked with lanceolate marks of buff, which become more and more indistinct 
as they approach the under tail-coverts, becoming obsolete on the abdomen. 
“Total length 11 inches; wing 5-7; tail 4; tibia 2 2 ; tarsus 1-2; hind toe 0-6, its claw 0-4, its width 
0'25 ; Inner toe 0*65, its claw 0*3 ; middle toe 0‘9, its claw 0'35 ; outer toe 0‘7, its claw 0*3 ; width of 
the sole of the foot 0‘35 ; bill from gape 1*2, from forehead 1*1, from the nostril 0*6, height at nostril 0*6, 
width at nostril 0*5, culmen 1*1 ; upper mandible black, lighter at the tip; lower mandible blackish brown ; 
gape yellow ; legs and feet black, claws brown.” 
It is now five years since I received information of the discovery of this bird from Mr. Coxen, then 
Honorary Curator of the Museum at Brisbane, with a promise that he would get the loan of the mutilated skin 
and forward the same to me for the purpose of figuring in the ‘Birds of New Guinea.’ Almost immediately 
after the receipt of Mr. Coxen’s letter, 1 read the sad news of his nearly sudden decease, a source of the 
deepest regret both to myself as a relative, and all persons who had the pleasure of knowing him. 
Besides the skin, the head of a second example was forwarded, which greatly added to the interest of the 
subject. We now anxiously await more examples. 
