BOWER BIRDS 
Amid deep, luxuriant brush near the coast of Australia the satin bower 
birds build their bowers or playgrounds. The base of these structures con¬ 
sists of a somewhat convex platform of interwoven sticks; the bower itself 
being a wall made of more slender and flexible twigs. The bower is not used 
as a nest, and indeed the nests of these birds have rarely been seen. 
Some observers state that the bowers are built by the females, but it is 
the brilliant, satiny-blue males who use them most. To this spot they bring 
all sorts of gay-colored articles: feathers, stones, shells, or, if in the neigh¬ 
borhood of cities, discarded street-car tickets, empty bluing bags and stolen 
ornaments. They always show a marked preference for blue in choosing 
their variegated articles, perhaps because that is their own color. 
In the bower the birds hop about with mincing steps and drooping 
wings. Now and then they will pick up an ornament and drop it before 
another bird, all the while uttering low, humming sounds. The satin bird 
is something of an artist. Mixing charcoal taken from the natives’ fires, 
with saliva, he paints the walls of his bower almost every day. A strip of 
bark is held in his beak so that the paint is forced through the sides of 
his bill. 
Originally the bowers may have been devised only for courting, but 
they are now apparently used for mere play, as they are occupied for fully 
ten months of the year. According to A. J. Marshall, the dull, gray-green 
females rarely approach them. In the nesting season, it is the females who 
take care of all the domestic drudgery. 
The bower birds are clever in mimicking the calls of other birds. They 
eat seeds, berries, wild figs and, to a lesser extent, insects. They are not 
migratory, but change their location from time to time depending on the 
food supply. The male is capable of a pleasant, liquid note, but like his 
mate he can also utter a harsh, guttural cry. In autumn the bower birds 
come together in small flocks near steep river banks, 
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