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CHLAMYDODERA MACULATA (Gould). .

Spotted Bower-bird.

   
  
    
  
   
     
   
   
    
    
   
   
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
  

Calodera maculata, Gould, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 106.—Id. Syn. B. Austr. part i. (1837)
Chlamydera maculata, Gould, B. Austr. part i. (1837, cancelled).—Id. op. cit. iv. nla Cau e=cr .
p. 225 (1846).—Bp. Consp. Av. i. p. 370 (1850).—Digeles, Orn. Austr = : Me Gen. Bee
| —Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 294, no. 4340 (1869). per 2 BP lo2e Comisaray
Chlamydodera macujata, Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i, p. 212 (Oct. 1851).—Gould, H
meg mucays Ubis; 1866, p.329.— Elliot, Monogr. Parad. jal, SSR, (1873).—Ramsay ee aSeleyZ 5
Id. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8. W. ii. p. 188 (1878).—Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. ea : cna
| eee umn, Soe N.S. W. vil. p. 409, pl. ii, fig. 2 (1s83),—North, op. cit Q) i ie
1165 (1887).—Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. B. p- 11 (1888).—North, Deser. Cat, Nee a aa
ee ee Px! fe. 5 (1889) —Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn, Club, iv. p. xiv Co
Ptilorhynchus maculatus, Schl. Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 119 (1867)

andb. B. Austr. i. p. 450 (1865).

 

Tus Spotted Bower-bird is distinguished by the reddish spots or bars at the tips of the feathers of the upper

| 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
the male has a lilac band on the nape.
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 complete 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 provinces 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 Rockhampton.”

On the feathers, and

Gould has given the following account of the species in his ‘ Handbook to the Birds of Australia’ :—

‘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 Namoi, 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 extreme
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 sufficiently 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 habit of constructing an artificial bower oF 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 England ; it is now in the British Museum. ‘The SE of these runs
or bowers are much varied: I found them both on the plains studded with Myalls (Acacia pendula) and other
smnall trees, and in the brushes clothing the lower hills. They are considerably longer and more avenue-
like 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 ; me
decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania of small ae and os On
by exposure to the rays of the sun or from the camp-fires of the natives. Byte: eee of hig HS
are manifest throughout the bower and decorations formed by this species, particularly in a ae
which the stones are placed within the bower, apparently to keep the grasses with which it is Jined fix