
DIAMOND SNAKE. 29 
Sydney, it being found in no other part of Australia than that from 
Port Macquarie to Jervis Bay or perhaps Cape Howe, and from the 
coast to the western slopes of the Blue Mountains and the Liverpool 
Range. In the plains watered by the Lachlan, the Murray, and the 
Murrumbidgee this species is never found, the carpet snake there 
taking its place, In Tasmania a highly venomous species (Hoplo- 
cephalus superbus), which is the large-scaled snake of New South 
Wales and the copper-head snake of Victoria, has also received the 
name diamond snake, and it is sometimes the case that persons who 
have resided in Tasmania describe both species as highly venomous 
snakes, It is to be hoped that some day there will bea change of 
name of either the Australian or Tasmanian individual. The museum 
_ (N.S. W.) has a reptile from the Manning River, the skin of which 
is marked in a most extraordinary manner, partaking of the charac- 
teristics of both the diamond and the carpet snakes by having the 
diamond-shaped scales and the carpetlike figuring. This blending 
of marking has led naturalists sometimes to hesitate in describing - 
two distinct species. 
Sarin BowEr-Birp— Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus. 
y 
Iniroduction.—The habits of this bird are most extraordinary. 
One point is of no ordinary interest both to the naturalist and the 
general admirer of nature, it is the formation of a bowerlike 
structure by this bird for the purpose of a playing-ground or hall of 
assembly—a circumstance which adds to the many anomalies con- 
nected with the avifauna of Australia. The old black males are 
exceedingly few in number, as compared with the females and young 
birds in the green dress, hence it is conjectured that two or three 
years elapse before they attain the rich satinlike plumage, which, 
when once assumed, is never again thrown off. 
Description.—The adult male has the whole of the plumage of a 
deep shining blue-black, closely resembling satin, with the excep- 
tion of the primary wing feathers, which are of a deep velvety 
black, and the wing-coverts, secondaries and tail-feathers, which 
are also of a velvety black, tipped with the shining blue-black lustre. 
The irides are a beautiful light blue, with a circle of red round the 
pupil. The bill is bluish horn, passing into yellow at the tip. The 
legs and feet are yellowish white. Besides the loud liquid call 
peculiar to the male, both sexes frequently utter a harsh, un- 
pleasant, guttural note indicative of surprise or displeasure. 
Except when feeding this bird is extremely shy and watchful, 
especially the old males, which not unfrequently perch on the top- 
most branch or dead limb of the loftiest tree in the forest, whence they 
can survey all round and watch the movements of the females and 
young in the brush below. The young males closely resemble the 
females, but differ in having the under surface of a more greenish- 
yellow hue, and the crescent-shaped markings more numerous. 
The males are not very long-lived after the change ; this accounts 
for their paucity in black. The female has the head and all the 
