SATIN BOWER-BIRD. 
Mr. F. E. Howe has sent a note : “ Saw about thirty of these beautiful 
creatures at Whittlesea, Victoria, Easter 1900, and in the flock there were 
about three of the blue birds. They were feeding in the willows and fruit 
trees close to a homestead.” 
A note by Mulder may be quoted: “A smaU party of Satin Bower-Birds 
has built a bower in a pine tree over my kitchen at Bambra (Vic.) (Oct. 10th, 
1892). They are very mteresting and amusing in their habits, and make 
such strange noises, sometimes like a cat snarhng, and sometimes a whirring 
noise hke an Owl; then again they imitate other birds so closely as to deceive 
anyone who did not know, and make one think there were five or six different 
birds in the tree. When watcliing these birds they were continually jumping 
about from one branch to another, and appeared to be playing together. As 
there were no black ones among them, I concluded that most of the birds were 
females or young males. The bower, which had a passage right through it, 
was composed of a lot of broken pine branches, laid across other fimbs of the 
tree and built close to the trunk. In fiying from one place to another the 
birds appeared to move off in a succession of small flights. Two or three of the 
flocks fly to a neighbouring tree; as soon as they alight, two or three more 
start. The first lot go on, then two or three more fly out from the first tree. 
The birds in the second tree go to the third, those in the third fly to a fourth 
tree, and so on mitil the whole flock has gone.” 
C. F. Cole has given a note regarding the plumage changes, from which 
I quote: “ The adult male has been called the king of the flock, ovung, no 
doubt, to the fact that one of these dark-plumed birds is nearly always accom¬ 
panied by a flock of the ‘ green ’ birds. As far as my experience goes. Satin 
Bower-Birds nearly always choose the slopes to a creek fairly thickly covered 
with imdergrowth, or a tree growing in the bed of a creek containing permanent 
water, for their building place, and return year after year to the same locality 
to nest. The egg of this species is considered to be fairly rare by collectors, 
but I attribute this to the want of knowledge of the nestmg sites. The bird 
is plentiful enough. I have never known more than two eggs to a clutch. 
About five months, August to December, cover the breeding-season; I have 
known eggs to be taken in both these months. Last December (1909), in 
Southern Gippsland, I found ten old nests about 100 yards apart, along the 
slopes and bed of a creek. The birds have built annually in this particular 
spot for some years now. In captivity the change in the male starts about 
the third or fourth year, the change being extended over a period of three 
years, when the perfect plumage is attained. Often I have been able to closely 
observe this bird in its wild state, and find that as soon as the change of plumage 
takes place in the males they become shy, seldom exposing themselves. The 
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