REGENT-BIRD. 
juice of which is the colour of red. mk, and when I shot the birds they emptied 
out of their stomachs quantities of this crimson fluid. The only note I heard 
them make was almost like a growl, or perhaps more like the word ‘ tear ’ 
pronounced loudly and drawn out.” 
j\Ir. A. G. Campbell sent me a note: “ It is a sight to be remembered to 
watch a flock of perhaps a dozen Regents feeding in the Richmond River district, 
New South Wales. There may be three or four gorgeous males among them,' 
the greater number, however, are drab- and grey-mottled females and immature 
males. The female is always distinguished by having the fore-head and nape 
of neck black. It is supposed that the young male is three seasons old before 
it dons its full livery. Occasionally a bird may be noticed that is undergoing 
the change and on the head and neck and in the wings the yellow is beginning 
to appear. In flight the perfect male can be at once distinguished by the 
brilhant yeUow patches on the wings. The Regent builds itself a bower or 
playhouse on the ground, and one I saw (Jan. 1900) was situated in a circle of 
lawyer-cane roots—a clear space about four feet in diameter. The walls of the 
bower, which were eight inches long and six inches high, were flxed into a layer 
or bed consisting of small pieces of stick so tightly trampled down that they 
were quite compact. This bed was in the form of an oval, measuring twenty- 
two inches across one way and nineteen inches in the other. I may mention 
that this is quite an unusual addition, as the sticks of the wall are usually fixed 
into the ground. When first noticed there were three birds, all drab-coloured, 
playing in this bower ; each carried an empty snail’s shell and in turn went 
into the bower and, after bobbing up and down a few times with half-opened 
■wings, would toss its shell out over the wall. The two birds remaining outside 
performed various antics and brushed the ground with their wings, as a result 
of which the soil within the enclosure of cane-roots was quite bare. I visited 
the bower several times subsequently, but the birds were not at home. Three 
or four purplish-tinted leaves were placed in the centre and the three shells 
were laid near by. I could see that each day the withering leaves were replaced 
by freshly plucked ones. The only calls the Regent-Birds have are a single 
whistle and a squeaky ‘ whit-whit ’ when alarmed.” 
Gilbert recently (not Gould’s Gilbert) has recorded: “ At Ourimbah, 
Oct. 3rd, 1909: Several pairs of Regent-Birds were seen flying to and 
fro in search of food, and probably on the lookout for a nesting-site. 
They were observed feeding peacefully upon the berries of vines. The 
brilliant orange-yellow and sheeny-black plumage of the male was in 
marked contrast to the sombre verdure of the undergrowdh, as the sun’s 
rays fell upon him w^henever the fohage above permitted. The female, 
being more secretive in her movements, invariably kept well within the 
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