Iriuiid to iiccoiniiaiiv iiu>, as lie was alVaid of a war party of Gomokudiiis, wliicli trllie liail lately given notice
that they were uoiniiiif to figlit tlie Evans Hay people. However, I promiseil to protect him, and loaded
one barrel with hall, which gave him increased confidence ; still lie insisted npoii carrying a large bundle of
spears and a throM-ing-sticlv.
"Ai hile watching in the scriih, I caught several glimpses of the Tewmga (its native name) as it darted
through the hushes iii the neighhonrhoud of the hower, announcing its presence by an occasional lend
r/iiirr-r-r, anil imitating the notes of various other birds, especially the Tmpldm-iujuohus. I never before met
with a more wary bird ; and, for a long time, it enticed me to follow it to a short distance, then Hying off
and alighting on the bower it would deposit a berry or two, run throngh and be off again before I conld
reach the spot. All this lime it was impossible to get a shot. At length, just as my patience was becoming
exhausted, I saw the bird enter the bower and disappear, when I fired at random throngh the twigs,
fortiLnately with ellect. So closely had we concealed ourselves latterly, and so silent bad we been, that a
kangaroo, « bile feeding, actually bopped up within fifteen yards, unconscious of our presence until lired at."
Eggs of the present species are in the Australian .Museum and in the collection of Mr. Philip Crowley.
The latter were taken by Mr. A. Goldie ii] Milne ]5ay, S.E. New Gninea.
Mr. A, ,1. North (IVoe. Linn. Soc. N.S.Wales, (2) i. p. 1100) says that the egg is very like that of
C. mncnlfita in colonr, with the same pecnliar linear markings crossing and recrossing each other all round,
but confined more to the larger end of the egg than is usually the ease with C. maculata. A specnnen m
the Austnilian Museum collection, taken at Cape York, measures 1-4 inch in length by 103 inch in breadth.
The nest is an open one, cup-shaped, and biiilt near the ground ; it is composed of twigs, |iicces of hark
and moss, and is liuetl inside with grass ¿^c."
'J'be following descriptioLi of the species is copied from my sixth volume of the ' Catalogue of Birds ' :—
Adult. Above brown, all the feathers edged with ashy, giving a greyish shade to the upper parts, nearly
uniform on the hiinl-neck ; crown of head, feathers above the eyes, and lores thickly but minutely dotted
with triangular spots of bnlly white; the whole of the back, scapulars, and wing-eoverts distinctly streaked
down the shaft with bnffy white, dilating into a triangular spot at the tip, all the apical markings much
larger and whiter on the wing-coverts, the primary-coverts edged with whitish near the tip ; quills brown,
externally washed with greyish, the secoiularies tipped with white, forming a large spot at the tip of the
innermost; rump and npper tail-coverts streaked like the back, but slightly more tinged with fulvous; tailfeathers
brown, washed with greyish along the edge of tlie outer webs and tipped with white; entire sides
of face and throat ashy brown, thickly streaked everywhere with light fawn-buff, all the featliers being
mesially streaked with this colour; chest fawn-bull', mottled with ashy brown, with which colour the feathers
arc edged and slightly barred ; all the rest of the under surface of the body clear fawn-colour, the flanks
indistinctly mottled with indications of ashy-brown bars ; sides of the npper breast brown, broadly streaked
down the centre with fulvous; under wing-coverts fawn, like the underparts, the onteruiost of the greater
series ashy brown, with pale fulvous hases, the lower surface of the quills light browLi, edged with pale
fidvous along the inner web : "bill black; feet grey; iris black " yl/ffe^'iV/ioray) ; " feet greenish ; Iris
dark maroon " {L. Loria'). Total length 11-3 inches, culmen M , wing 5 (55, tail 4-91, tarsus \ 7.
The njiper figure in the accompanying Plate represetits an adult male of this species from Ca])e York,
of the size of life.
CHLAMYDODERA MACULATA {Gould).
Spotted Bower-bird.
Calodera maculata, Gould, P. Z. S. 18,'SC, p. IOC.—Id. Syn. B. Austr. part i. (1837).
Chlamyiera maculata, Gould, B. Austr. part i. (1837, cancelled).—Id. op. cit. iv. pi. 8 (1841).—Gray, Gen. B. ii.
p. 225 (184C).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 370 (1850).—Diggles, Orn. Austr. i. p. 52, pi. 52 (c. 1807).
—Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 294, no. 4340 (1809).
CUamyiodera maculata. Cab. Mus. Hehi. Th. i. p. 212 (Oct. 1851).—Gould, Ilandb. B. Austr. i. p. 450 (1805).
—Ramsay, Ibis, 1806, p. 329.—Elliot, Monogr. Parad. pi. xxx. (1873).—Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 003.
—Id. Proc. Lmn. Soc. N. S. W. ii. p. 188 (1878).—Sharps, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. vi. p. 389 (1881).—
Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. vii. p. 409, pi, iii. fig. 2 (1883).—North, op. cit. (2) i. pp. 1157,
1105 (1887).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p. 11 (1888).—North, Descr. Cat. Nests and Eggs
Austr. B. p. 178, pl.xi. fig. 5 (1889).—Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xiv (1894).
Ptilm-hjnchus macuhtus, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 119 (1807).
THE Sjiotted Bower-bird is distinguished by the reddish spots or bars at the tips of the feathers of the upjier
surface, which give the bird a strongly mottled appearance, as well as by the dusky spots and bars on the
flanks and throat. The head is rufous brown, varied with blackish edgings and spots on tlie feathers, and
the male has a lilac band on the najie.
Mr. E. P. Ramsay, in his 'Tabular List of Australian Birds," gives the range of the species as from Cape
York and Rockingham Bay to Port Denison, the Dawson River, and the Wide Bay district, as well as
New South Wales, the interior of Australia to Victoria, and South Australia. Mr. A. G. North also adds
the Clarence River district as a habitat of the species, so that its range is conijilete from Cape York to
New South Wales and thence west to Victoria and South Australia.
In his ' Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and
Tasmania,' Mr. North writes :—" Our knowledge of the range of this species has recently been extended
to Cape York. Previously Rockingham Bay was considered its northern limit on the coast, and the
Murray district in Victoria and South Australia its most southern range. The interior jirovinces are the
stronghold of this species, where it is found plentifully dispersed all over the Lachlan and Darling River
districts. It also occurs inland eighty miles west from Roekhampton."
Gould lias given the following account of the species in his ' Handbook to the Birds of Austral ia' ;
" During my journey into the interior of New South Wales, I observed this bird to be tolerably abundant
at Brezi on the river Mokai to the northward of the Liverpool Plains : it is also equally numerous in all the
low scrubby ranges in the neighbourhood of the Nanioi, as well as in the open brushes which intersect the
plains on its borders ; and collections from Moreton Bay generally contain examples ; still from the e,\treme
shyness of its disposition, the bird is seldom seen by ordinary travellers, and it must be under very peculiar
circumstances that it can be approached snfBciently close to observe its colours. The Spotted Bower-bird
has a harsh, grating, scolding note, which is generally uttered when its haunts are intruded on, and by this
means its presence is detected when it would otherwise escape observation. When disturbed it takes to the
topmost branches of the loftiest trees, and frequently flies off to another neighbourhood.
" In many of its actions and in the greater part of its economy much similarity exists between this species
and the Satin Bower-bird, particularly in the curious liabit of constructing an artificial bower or playing-place.
I was so far fortunate as to discover several of these bowers during my journey in the interior, the finest of
which I succeeded in bringing to Enghmd ; it is now in the British iMuseum. The situations of these runs
or bowers are much varied : I found them both on the plains studded with Myalls (Jcacia pencluh) and other
small trees, and in the brushes clothing the lower hills. They are considerably longer and more avenuelike
than those of the Satin Bower-bird, being in many instances three feet in length. They are outwardly
built of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that their heads nearly meet; the
decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania of small mammalia and other bones bleached
by exposure to the rays of the sun or from the camp-fires of the natives. Evident indications of high instinct
are manifest throughout the bower and decorations formed by this species, particularly in the manner in
which the stones are placed within the bower, aj)]iarently to keeji the grasses with which it is lined fixed