PRIONODURA NEWTONIANA,

Newton’s Bower-bird.

De Vis.

Prionodura newtoniana, De Vis, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, vii. p. 562 (1883) —Ramsay, Tabular List of Aust
ee i. ; e . C De > c Co S iL SUES
B. p. 11 (1888).—De Vis, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensl, 1889, p. 245.—id. Rep. Exped. Bellenden-Ker
Range, p. 87 (1889).—Meston, t. c. p. 120.—Sclater, Ibis, 1890, p. 264.
Corymbicola mestoni, De Vis, MSS. : fide Meston, 1. ¢.

 

Tus remarkable Bower-bird was described by Mr. De Vis from a single

specimen procured in Queensland
by Mr. Kendal Broadbent, and was at once recognized by it

s describer as belonging to a new genus. As
type specimen of Prionodura was a female or
young male, the bird in neither case giving promise of having a brilliantly decorated adult male.
is closely allied to Amblyornis, but differs in the style of ornamentation in the male.

In a “Further Account of Prionodura newtoniana,’

with my Amblyornis subalaris, it has since transpired that the

The genus

* Mr. De Vis has given the subsequent history of the
species, and I cannot do better than reproduce his own words :—

‘The bird was first discovered by Mr. K. Broadbent in the scrubs clothing the banks of the Tully River,
a small river issuing from an angle formed by spurs of the Coast Range on its eastern aspect and entering
the sea some little distance to the north of Cardwell. In the vale of the Herbert, on the western side of the
principal spur and more immediately in the vicinity of Cardwell, the bird does not seem to occur, Mr. Broadbent
having there searched for it more than once without success—lat. 18° is, therefore, probably its southern limit
of range. Its true Jiabitat is now ascertained to be the bighlands north of the township of Herberton, where
it was first observed by Mr. A. Meston in the course of a flying visit to the top of Bellenden-Ker. From near
the summit of this mountain Mr. Meston brought down the skin of a male bird; and soon after, Mr. Broadbent,
visiting Herberton in pursuit of the Tree-Kangaroo of that district, encountered the bird frequently about
seven miles from town (fifty miles from the Bellenden-Ker), and collected a rich series of examples. How
far northward the bird extends its range is as yet unknown.

“ Prionodura is emphatically a Bower-bird. Both its observers in nature met with its bowers repeatedly
and agree in representing them to be of unusual size and structure. From their notes and sketches it would
appear that the bower is usually built on the ground between two trees, or between a tree and a bush. It is
constructed of small sticks and twigs. These are piled up almost horizontally around one of the trees in the
form of a pyramid, which rises to a height varying from four to six feet; a similar pile of inferior height,
about eighteen inches, is then built round the foot of the other tree; the intervening space is arched over
with stems of climbing plants, the piles are decorated with white moss, and the arch with similar moss mingled
with clusters of green fruit resembling wild grapes. Through and over the covered run play the birds, young
and old, of both sexes. A still more interesting and characteristic feature in the play-ground of this bird
remains. The completion of the massive bower so laboriously attained is not sufficient to arrest the archi-
tectural impulse. Scattered immediately around are a number of dwarf hut-like structures—‘ gunyahs,’ they
are called by Broadbent, who says he found five of them in a space of ten feet diameter and Olpsantes that
they give the spot exactly the appearance of a miniature blacks’ camp. These seem to be om yi bending
towards each other strong stems of standing grass and capping them with a horizontal thatch of light twigs.
In and cut and around the ‘ gunyahs,’ and from one to another, the birds in their play pursue each other to
their hearts’ content.” ; ‘

Mr. De Vis gives further notes in the Report of the Bellenden-Ker expedition a Found at all ee
the summit of Bellenden-Ker and in the scrubs around Herberton at a high elevation. In connection with
the bower of this handsome bird we are indebted for an interesting fact to Broadbent's observation, that
whereas towards the base of the mountain the bowers have the elaborate formation noticed lately in a
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, at higher levels ney gradually lose me ae
character, and at the top are reduced to the simple trough-like form of bn bower of the oe a a me
birds, for which they might be mistaken were those birds inhabitants of this disney ae : peer
believe that Mr. Meston has acquainted us with the nest and egg of this bird. a hile hear bie ae
of a male be noticed a rustling in a bush by his side, and looking in saw a bird which 1e oe par
hesitation, was the female just disturbed from a nest built im a fork of the bush. The ee : ae ne
shaped and loosely constructed of fibrous roots, lined with finer material of the on oe ee
with a little green moss on the outer side. The egg is 27 mm. long) 9) mm. pro pe ee
profusely freckled and blotched with pale brown.”