THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
its receipt at the Museum on the 25th March, was pronounced to be a new bird 
and, as such, received the name of Meston’s Bower-Bird {Corymbicola mestmi) ■ 
my discovery that it was only the fuU-plumaged male of Newton’s Bower-Bird 
{Prionodura newtoniana), and the specimens and Avritten observations which 
I forAvarded in support of this conclusion, not having been then received 
in Brisbane. . . . The male Golden BoAver-Bird is a splendid mocker 
imitating aU the birds of liis locahty, as Avell as the creaking noise of 
tree-frogs. The note of the female resembles that of the Queensland Cat- 
Bird in a sharper and shriller key.” 
De Vis wrote: “ Prionodura is emphatically a Bower-Bird. Both its 
observers in nature met Avith its boAvers repeatedly, and agree in representing 
them to be of unusual size and structure. From their notes and sketches 
(Broadbent and Meston) it would appear that the bower is usually buUt on the 
ground, between tAvo trees, or between a tree and a bush. It is constructed 
of small sticks and twigs. These are piled up almost horizontally round one 
of the trees in the form of a pyramid, Avhich rises to a height varying from four 
feet to six feet. A similar pile of inferior height—about eighteen inches—is 
then buUt around the foot of the other tree. The intervening space is arched 
over with stems of cMmbing plants, the piles are decorated Avith white moss, 
and the arch Avith similar moss, mingled with clusters of green fruit resembling 
wild grapes. Tlurough and over the covered run play the birds, young and 
old, of both sexes. A still more interesting and characteristic feature in the 
playground of this bird remains. The completion of the massive bower so 
laboriously obtained is not sufficient to arrest the architectural impulse. 
Scattered immediately around is a number of dAvarf, hut-like structures— 
gunyahs they are called by Broadbent, vA’ho says he found five of them in a 
space of ten feet diameter, and observes that they give the spot exactly the 
appearance of a miniature blacks’ camp. These seem to be built by bending 
towards each other strong stems of standing grass, and capping them Avith a 
horizontal thatch of light twigs. In and around the gunyahs, and from one 
to another, the birds in their play pursue each other to their hearts’ content. ’ 
Little has since been written about this interesting species, as when Jackson 
wrote up the account of the investigation of the Tooth-billed Bower-Bird 
entitled In the Barron River Valley, North Queensland, he intimated: “ I might 
also be able to find the nest and eggs of the Golden BoAver-Bird, thus gaining 
information regarding the tAA’^o remaining species of the BoAver-Bird family of 
the nidification of Avhich full particulars had not yet been recorded.” He later 
Avrote : The boAver of the Golden BoAver-Bird AA'hich I photographed covered 
an area of 14 feet by 6, and in the centre the pile of sticks Avas over 4 feet high. 
The whole structure appeared to have no symmetry at all, most of the sticks 
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