THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
d, irides brown, biU black, legs greenish-olive. Stomach contents, berries 
Jar dine River (12th March, 1911) : ?, irides greyish-bro^vn, bill black, legs 
slate-colour. Stomach contents, seeds and skuis of wild fruits and berries” 
Later, from the Lloyd Bay district, MacgiUivray added: “ Fawn-breasted 
Bower-Birds are shy, and more often heard than seen. At the sandalwood 
landing an old disused bower was on the bank of the river right by our camp 
with a still older one a few yards distant. Mr. McLemian found a new one a 
couple of hundi-ed yards further back. It was a very compact structure of 
closely-interwoven sticks and Dvigs—so closely, that the hiside walls were 
quite smooth, and so secured to the floor and platforms at either end that it 
could be moved en masse. On the platforms were collections of glossy green 
berries, and a number are also stuck along the top of the side walls. The old 
and withered berries had been removed to a place a couple of feet away from 
the bower, and formed quite a small heap. Every momhig fresh leaves are 
brought to the bower and the withered ones are removed. Two days after 
finding tliis bower, Mr. McLennan and I, when out with tw’o blacks looking 
for some wild bees’ liives, heard a Bowser-Bird calling, and found a fine new 
bower in a small clump of tea-trees in open forest country. It was very com¬ 
pactly built. The actual bower was 14 inches long by 13 inches wide ; one wall 
was 6 inches high, the other 4. The passage was 3 inches in width, 
with perfectly smooth inside walls. The front platform was 14 inches by 12 
inches, and was covered with fresh green berries, about 100 in all. These 
were also stuck in along the tops of the walls on the iimer edge, and there were 
a few on the rear platform, which measm-ed 10 inches by 7 niches. When at 
Cape Restoration, on the 13th January, we hstened to one of these birds giving 
voice to a great variety of notes, and fomid that she had a fully-fledged young 
one -with her. Mr. Kershaw had the first bower removed on the 9th January 
for transport to the Melbourne Museum. Seventeen days afterwards the 
birds had a fine new bower all complete a few feet from the old site.” 
Tliis is the only “ Chlamydera ’’-like bird which occurs outside Australia, 
a form living in New Guinea. Although the New Guinea form had been called 
by the name given by Gould to a Cape York specimen it was obviously a darker 
race and I named it A. c. nova, but Meyer had named it recondita. There 
is no technical history to this rare species. 
TSvo races can be recognised: 
Alphachlamydera cerviniventris cermniventris (Gould). 
Cape York, North Queensland. 
Alphachlamydera cerviniventris recondita (Meyer). 
New Guinea. 
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