BOWER-BIRD, a name given to certain Australian birds of the starling (q.v.) family, or strnahr, remarkable for habit of making bower-like erections, called 50 MB by the colonists of New South Wales, and for adorning them with gay feathers, rags, bones, sheds, and such other white or brightly colored objects as they can pick up. These bowers are not used as nests, hut they appear to be places of much resort at the breeding-season in particular. The use made of them by the birds is very imperfectly understood; but their structure has been carefully examined,.and fine specimens of them, transported with no little difficulty, have been deposited in the British museum by Mr. Gould, in whose work on the Bire..: of Australia an account of them was first given to the world. The bowers of the satin bower-bird (ptilonorhynaus holosericeus) are built among the branches of some tree, and appear to be repaired and frequented from year to year. The base consists of an extensive and rather convex platform of sticks, firmly interwoven, on the center of which the bower itself is built of more flexible twigs.. It is chiefly at and near the entrance that the shells, feathers, etc.,employed for decoration are are placed. The bowers of the spotted bower-bird (chlamydera maculata) are longer and more avenue-like than those of the satin bower-bird; they are placed upon the ground, and are outwardly built of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses so disposed that their heads nearly meet. The decorative propensity appears in the highest degree in this
species. "In some of the larger bowers, which had evidently been resorted to for many years," Mr. Gould says, "I have seen nearly half a bushel of bones, shells, etc., at each of the entrances." These are arranged in much the same way at both entrances. Small pebbles are often transported by the birds from considerable aistances.
The satin bower-bird is particularly abundant in the mountainous districts of the w. of New South Wales, and is found in all the "brushes" from the mountains to the coast. The adult male has the whole plumage of a deep, shining black. The colors of the female are grayish-green and brown, curiously mingled.—The spotted bower-bird, which is rather smaller than the satin bower-bird, or about the size of a starling, has a general color of rich brown, beautifully marked with black and buff; a band cf elongated feathers of light rose pink crossing the back of the neck, and forming a broad, fan-like, occipital crest. It is exclusively an inhabitant of the interior of Australia.—Another species, the great bower bird (ehlamydera nuchalis), considerably larger than either of the others, and very similar in form and plumage to the spotted bower-bird, has been found on the n. w. coast of Aus tralia. Its bowers are always adorned with sea shells, even when at a distance from the sea.