Bowerbird

“ It then flashed across me that I had fallen in with the "run" of the bower-bird, of which I had so often heard, and had so often sought for without success.
The satin bower-bird ('Ptilonorhynchus holosericus') belongs to the family of starlings, and though tolerably common in New South Wales, is but a rare visitor to the hotter climate of Northern Queensland. The plumage of the adult male is of a glossy satin-like purple, appearing almost black, whilst the females and the young are all of an olive-greenish colour. ”

“ The bower-constructing instinct is so strong that it is practiced even in confinement. A naturalist in describing the habits of some satin bower-birds kept in an aviary says that at times the male will chase the female all over the aviary, then go to the bower, pick up a gay feather or a large leaf, utter a curious kind of note, set all his feathers erect, run round the bower, and become so excited that his eyes appear to start from his head. ”

“ At the Zoological Gardens these Bower-birds have long lived, and it is a most interesting sight to watch them weaving their platforms, raising the bowers over them, and then keep running in at one end and out at the other, like children at play, and with their burnished plumage gleaming in the sunbeams. ”

“ But the male Bower-Bird, and also, I think, the female, is a great mimic, and reproduces to perfection the notes of many surrounding birds. All the same, he seems to have a preference for harsh sounds, such as the alarm notes of the local Shrike-Thrush, Carter Honey-eater, White-browed Babbler, and the tremulous cries of young Hawks clamouring for food. I have heard a male imitate the notes of Cracticus leucopterus to perfection, and, again, a female gave a perfect rendering of those of Cracticus picatus. ”

“ Bower-birds’ clubs are drawing-rooms raised at the common expense by all who frequent them. The Spotted Bower-bird, the Chlamydera maculata, which also lives in the interior of Australia, exercises this method of construction with equal success. The bowers built by these birds may be one metre in length; this is on a very luxurious scale, the animal itself only measuring twenty-five centimetres. In this species, as among other Bower-birds, the bowers are not the labour and the property of a single couple ”

“ The bower-birds live in the compartments of the western Aviary nearest to and on the left of the main entrance. Apart from the claims to sympathy which their æsthetic tastes suggest, the birds themselves are singularly handsome, courageous, and active, and thoroughly enjoy the excitement and change of scene which is so distasteful to many creatures confined in a public menagerie. They are strongly-built, compact-looking birds, almost as large as a rook, but in general shape something between a thrush and the Indian mynah. ”

“ At its best, it is a remarkable performance, a unique performance, as it contains not the slightest hint or suggestion, either in tone or manner or effect, of any other bird-song to be heard. The bobolink has no mate or parallel in any part of the world. He stands alone. There is no closely allied species. He is not a lark, nor a finch, nor a warbler, nor a thrush, nor a starling (though classed with the starlings by late naturalists) . He is an exception to many well-known rules. He is the only ground-bird known to me of marked and conspicuous plumage. ”

“ Whilst the nest, therefore, is the nursery, this other structure may be looked upon as the bower of bliss. Generally the birds make it of sticks, grasses, or other materials belonging to the vegetable kingdom, but it differs in each species, so the best way is to describe what it is like in a few of the more salient [60] instances. The Satin Bower-bird makes a sort of platform of sticks, which it weaves together, so that they are firm enough for it to run over. ”

“ He builds a bower, or walk, and decorates it with any gaudy feathers or other things he can find, and also with shells, bleached bones, and similar small objects. So well is his propensity known that when we drop a pipe-bowl or a penknife in the bush, we search for it in the bowers or runs of these birds, and very often find it there. As the bower-bird feeds entirely on seeds and fruits, it is evident that he secures these small things for the sake of ornament. ”

“ The propensity of these birds to pick up and fly off with any attractive object is so well known to the natives that they always search the runs for any small missing article, such as the bowl of a pipe, that may have been accidentally dropped in the bush. In the spotted bower-bird the approaches are decorated with shells, skulls, and bones, especially those which have been bleached white by the sun; and as these birds feed almost entirely upon seeds and fruits, the shells and bones cannot have been collected for any other purpose than ornament. ”

“ THE SPOTTED BOWER-BIRD. FROM LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. Elegant and ingenious as are the structures and collections of the satin bower-bird, the species of the allied genus Chlamydera display still greater architectural abilities, and more extensive, collective, and decorative powers.
The spotted bower-bird [A] is an inhabitant of the interior. Its probable range, in Mr. Gould's opinion, is widely extended over the central portions of the Australian continent ”

“ If I were a bird, in building my nest I should follow the example of the bobolink, placing it in the midst of a broad meadow, where there was no spear of grass, or flower or growth unlike another to mark its site. I judge that the bobolink escapes the dangers to which I have adverted as few or no other birds do. Unless the mowers come along at an earlier date than she has anticipated, that is, before July lst, or a skunk goes nosing through the grass, which is unusual, she is as safe as bird well can be in the great open of nature. ”

“ Other birds may like to travel alone, but when jolly Mr. Bobolink and his quiet little wife come from the South, where they have spent the winter, they come with a large party of friends. When South, they eat so much rice that the people call them Rice Birds. When they come North, they enjoy eating wheat, barley, oats and insects.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobolink build their simple little nest of grasses in some field. It is hard to find on the ground, for it looks just like dry grass. Mrs. Bobolink wears a dull dress, so she cannot be seen when she is sitting on the precious eggs. ”

“ The variety is almost endless. Dull indeed is the mind to which a cunningly contrived nest does not appeal. Tell the boys that it is all right to collect abandoned nests, but the taking of eggs and occupied nests is unlawful and wicked.
The Play-House of the Bower Bird. Years ago we read of the wonderful playhouses constructed by the bower birds of Australia and New Guinea, but nothing ever brought home to us this remarkable manifestation of bird thought so closely as did the sight of our own satin bower bird busily at work on his own bower. ”

“ The brolga has a taste for dancing; flocks of this bird may be seen solemnly going through quadrilles and lancers—of their own invention—on the plains.
Another strange Australian bird is called the bower-bird, because when a bower-bird wishes to go courting he builds in the Bush a little pavilion, and adorns it with all the gay, bright objects he can—bits of rag or metal, feathers from other birds, coloured stones and flowers. In this he sets himself to dancing until some lady bower-bird is attracted, and they set up housekeeping together. ”

“ The bowers are built long before the birds begin to build their nests which are placed in trees.
One of the most noteworthy species procured by the Expedition was the gorgeously coloured Bower-Bird, Xanthomelus ardens. The male has the eye yellow and272 the head, sides of the neck and mantle orange-scarlet, the feathers of the latter being very long and loose and forming a dense cape; the rest of the plumage is orange-yellow above and golden-yellow below: the ends of the quills and the tail-feathers, being black. ”

“ The male is perhaps the most conspicuously marked of all the ground-birds except the bobolink, being black above, bay on the sides, and white beneath. The bay is in compliment to the leaves he is forever scratching among,—they have rustled against his breast and sides so long that these parts have taken their color; but whence come the white and the black? The bird seems to be aware that his color betrays him, for there are few birds in the woods so careful about keeping themselves screened from view. When in song, its favorite perch is the top of some high bush near to cover. ”

“ All the field and orchard and grove birds come. In early summer the bobolink perches there, then tiptoes, or tip-wings, away to the meadows below, pouring out his ecstatic song. The rose-breasted grosbeak comes and shows his brilliant front. The purple finch, the goldfinch, the indigo bunting, the bluebird, the kingbird, the ph [oe] be-bird, the great crested flycatcher, the robin, the oriole, the chickadee, the high-hole, the downy woodpecker, the vesper sparrow, the social sparrow, or chippy, pause there in the course of the day, and some of them several times during the day. ”

“ I know nothing so pleasant as to sit in the shade of that dark bower, with the eye resting on that bright piece of colour, lighted so gloriously by the evening sun, now catching a glimpse of the little birds as they fly rapidly in and out of their nests—for there are always two or three birds'-nests in the thick tapestry of cherry-trees, honeysuckles, and china-roses, which covers our walls—now tracing the gay gambols of the common butterflies as they sport around the dahlias; now watching that rarer moth, which the country people, fertile in pretty names, call the bee-bird ”

“ When the female is disturbed during incubation, she trails along the twigs and branches, with expanded tail and drooping wings, and utters a plaintive note, resembling in air these circumstances the Blue-eyed Warbler. I am not sure that they raise more than one brood in a season. When the young abandon the nest, their plumage partakes of a greenish tinge, and no difference can be perceived between the sexes without dissection. The little family move and hunt together, and exhibit much pleasure in pursuing small insects on wing, which they seize without any clicking sound of their bill. ”

“ When you come upon the sitting bird, she will almost let you touch her rather than to start up before you, and thus betray her secret. The bobolink begins to scold and to circle about you as soon as you enter the meadow where his nest is so well hidden. He does not wait to show his anxiety till you are almost upon it. By no action of his can you get a clew as to its exact whereabouts.
The song sparrow nearly always builds upon the ground, but my little neighbor of last July laid the foundations of her domicile a foot or more above the soil. ”

“ The bower birds of Australia show a decided liking for bright and colored objects of various kinds, which they work into their remarkable "runs," bowers, or "play-houses," and the crow, and other members of his tribe, which are commonly regarded as the most intelligent of birds, can seldom be trusted in the presence of any small and shining objects whatsoever, which they will steal, and either carry off and hide, or work into their nests. ”

“ He likes the rushes and the reeds where the Red-winged Blackbird and the Tule Wren live. I once found a Red-wing’s nest and a Yellow-throat’s home within a few feet of each other. If you want to see this ground warbler, go to his haunt. He will see you first but lie down quietly among the bushes. He will likely get curious and hop up out of the reeds. You may get just one good look before he darts away into the bushes again.
The male Yellow-throat always wears plain marks of recognition on his face. He has a black mask extending across his forehead and back on the sides of his head. ”

“ Not long after the bluebird comes the robin. In large numbers they scour the fields and groves. You hear their piping in the meadow, in the pasture, on the hillside. Walk in the woods, and the dry leaves rustle with the whir of their wings, the air is vocal with their cheery call. In excess of joy and vivacity, they run, leap, scream, chase each other through the air, diving and sweeping among the trees with perilous rapidity. ”

“ Sometimes the water-spirit appears in the shape of a great bird, which the West Highlanders called the Boobrie, who has a long neck, great webbed feet with tremendous claws, a powerful bill hooked like an eagle's, and a voice like the roar of an angry bull. ”

“ Bowles, Audubon Warblers evince a great fondness for their chosen nesting haunts, and will return to them year after year, often to the same tree, and sometimes to the same branch. “They are the most solicitous of all the Washington Warblers concerning their eggs, sometimes coming to meet the intruder as he climbs toward the nest. At such times the alarm note of the female soon brings the male, when, should the nest contain incubated eggs or young, both birds crawl among the branches, frequently within reach, with wings and tail spread, in absolute forgetfulness of their own safety.” ”

“ The two parent birds in the plate represent the change from the dark plumage in which the bird is commonly known in the North as the Bobolink, to the dress of yellowish brown by which it is known throughout the South as the Rice or Reed Bird.
His nest, small and a plain one, too, is built on the ground by his industrious little wife. The inside is warmly lined with soft fibers of whatever may be nearest at hand. ”