The spotted bower-birds of the genus Chlamy dera form still more elaborate runs. There are several species, all characterized by the pink, collar-like marking on the necks of the males, which inhabit bushy districts in southern Aus tralia and northern New Guinea. Their struc tures take the form of avenues about 3 feet long and 8 inches broad inside; the walls of upright twigs, rising from a dense platform, bend in at the top, but do not meet. This avenue and the ground near it are always strewn with hundreds of white pebbles, shells, bleached bones, and other bright objects. which the birds delight to gather, arrange, and rearrange.
Of a different and even more remarkable char acter are the structures of the related gardener bird (A in blyarnis in ornat us) of New Gitinea, first described by the Italian naturalist Dr. O. Beccari, in the Annals of the Museum of Genoa. (Vol. IX., p. 383, Pl. 8). Choosing a level spot in the forest, this bird dears a space around a sapling the size of a walking-stick, and heaps up around its base a cone of mosses about 18 inches in height. Around this is built a conical hut, made by leaning from the ground to the central pillar. at a little distance above the interior enne, thin, straw-like stems of an epiphytal orchid, which serve as rafters; these are interwoven and well thatched with others of the same sort, form ing a 'wigwam' open in front, but covering a gal lery running around the pillar. The orchids of which it is eomposed retain their leaves and remain alive and blooming for a long while: and Dr. Beceari believes that they are chosen by the birds on this account. "But." he says, "the aesthetic tastes of our 'gardener' are not re stricted to the construction of a cabin. Their fondness for flowers and for gardens is still more remarkable. Directly in front of the entrance to their cabin . . .is a miniature meadow of soft moss, transported thither, kept smooth and clean and free from grass, weeds, stones, and other objects not in harmony with its design. Upon this graceful green carpet are scattered flowers and fruit of different colors in such a manner that they really present the appearance of an elegant little garden. . . . Showy fungi
and elegantly colored insects are also distributed about the garden and within the galleries of the cabin. When these objects have been exposed so long as to lose their freshness they are taken from the abode, thrown away. and replaced by others." Each of these huts and its garden are believed to be the work of a single pair. or per haps of the male alone; and they seem to be utilized year after year.
Not less remarkable is the bower of birds of the genus Prionodura, described by Mr. Denis in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Queens land for 1889 as a collection of huts looking not unlike a dwarfed camp of the aborigines.
The purpose of these structures is perhaps best characterized by the term 'playhouse,' and they are merely the carrying out architecturally of the same feeling which leads many other birds to resort to certain spots. and in some cases to prepare them. by scratching or other simple ef forts. for the purpose of playing with one an other, or of going through the dancing and antics that are a part of the method of courtship. This phase of bird life has been treated more or less by all writers upon birds, and especially for those of the North Atlantic shores by Edmund Mous in Bird. Watching (London, 1901) but the briefest general array of such facts is con tained in Chapter X111. of Darwin's Descent of Alan. Many birds show a distinct preference for bright objects about them. and adorn their nests for no other apparent reason than testhetie en joyment: and the fondness shown by the bower birds for pretty ornaments seems only the highest development of this wide tendency. They replace dying leaves and faded flowers with fresh ones, and move about and arrange their shells and peb bles precisely as if it were an amusement and mental gratifieation to 'play' with them and with each other in a nicely prepared place.