204 STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
building, we have been long anticipated by a bird which was 
unknown until within the last few years. Truly, nothing is new 
under the sun. 
The ball-room, or ‘ bower/ which this bird builds is a very 
remarkable erection. Its general form can be seen by reference 
to the illustration, but the method by which it is constructed 
can only be learned by watching the feathered architect at work. 
Fortunately there are several specimens of this bird at the 
Zoological Gardens, and I have often been much interested in 
seeing the bird engaged in its labours. 
Whether it works smartly or not in its native land I cannot 
say, but it certainly does not hurry itself in this country. It 
begins by weaving a tolerably firm platform of small twigs, jj 
which looks as if the bird had been trying to make a door mat 
and had nearly succeeded. It then looks for some long and 
rather slender twigs, and pushes their bases into the platform, 
working them tightly into its substance, and giving them such 
an inward inclination that, when they are fixed at opposite sides 
of the platform, their tips cross each other, and form a simple 
arch. As these twigs are set along the platform on both sides 
the bird gradually makes an arched alley, extending variably 
both in length and height. 
When the bower is completed, the reader may well ask the 
use to which it can be put. It is not a nest, and I believe that 
the real nest of this bird has not yet been discovered. It serves 
as an assembly-room, in which a number of birds take their 
amusement Not only do the architects use it, but many birds 
of both sexes resort to it, and continually run through and 
round it, chasing one another in a very sportive fashion. 
While they are thus amusing themselves, they utter a curious, 
deep, and rather resonant note. Indeed, my attention was first 
attracted to the living Bower Bird by this note. One day as I 
was passing the great aviary in the Zoological Gardens, I was 
startled by a note with which I was quite unacquainted, and 
which I thought must have issued from the mouth of a parrot. 
Presently, however, I saw a very glossy bird, of a deep purple 
hue, running about, and occasionally uttering the sound which 
