F 
GREAT BOWER-BIRD. 
of tbe inner web wbitisli-grey ; secondaries greyish-brown, widely margined at 
the tip with white, and with a small spot of greyish-white near the tip; chin and 
throat smoke-grey; chest, breast and flanks wliitish baiTed with ash-brown; 
belly and under tail-coverts greyish-white, the latter with concentric bars of 
grewsh-brown. Eyes brown, feet and tarsus light olive-brown, bill dull black. 
Collected on Melville Island on the 11th of November, 1911. 
Eggs. One egg usually forms the clutch, sometimes . two. When two are laid they are 
not so large as when only the single egg is deposited for the clutch. An egg taken 
at Anson Bay, near Port Darwin, Northern Territory, on the 1st of November, 
1910, is of a pale greyish-gi’een ground-coloui', well covered with a mass of lines 
and hair-like markings of olive-brown, umber, blacldsh-brown, and purplish-slate, 
turning and twisting in all directions, though a great many encircle the egg. The 
lines are about the thickness of that made by a firm stroke of an ordinarv 
writing-pen, and the hair-like or smaller lines are in many instances finer than 
hair. Both ends of the eggs are rather free of naarkings. The eggs of this species 
varj' considerablj^ and the line markings on some are very thick, some lines being 
well over the 16th of an inch wide. Oval in shape. Surface of shell fine and smooth 
and rather glossy. 45 by 29 mm. 
Eest. Very similar to that of C. maculata, but very often much more carelessly built. It 
is generally composed of a few sticks placed in a thick bunch of twigs in a tree, 
and situated at heights var 3 'ing from 8 to 30 feet. 
Breeding-months. September to February'. 
The first note of the economy of this Bower-Bird appears to be the 
item recorded by Captain Stokes in his Discoveries in Australia, thus; 
“ I found matter for conjecture in noticing a number of twigs with their ends 
stuck in the ground, w'hich was strewed over with shells, and their tops brought 
together so as to form a small bower ; this was 2^ feet long, feet wide at either 
end. It was not until my next visit to Port Essington that I thought this 
anything but some Australian mother’s toy to amuse her cliild ; upon being 
asked, one day, to go and see the ‘ birds’ playhouse,’ I immediately recognised 
the same kuid of construction I had seen at the Victoria River, and found 
the bird amusing itself by flying backwards and forwards, taking a shell alter¬ 
nately from each side, and carrying it through the archway in its mouth.” 
Mr. J. R. Rogers has written me from North-west Australia ; “At Marngle 
Creek between the 19th and 30th May a few of these birds were seen and these 
always at the camp, doubtless the same birds. When I left Mamgle on my 
way to Jegurra Creek I followed the Pitzroy River for about eighteen miles 
and here these birds were numerous. After leaving the Eitzroy I went up 
Jegurra Creek and saw few of these birds; the furthest point south any were 
seen was ten miles up from the Eitzroy. None were seen at Mungi and Knowla 
Downs Station. In the middle of July I returned to the Eitzroy and found 
these birds very numerous along the banks of the river. When collecting 
for Mr. R. Hall in 1900 these birds were in large numbers around the base of 
the Grant Ranges, West Kimberley. These birds are found aU over West 
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