Kitta holosericea, Temm. Pl. Col. 395 and 422.—Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 350, pl. 46. fig. 1.
Satin Grakle, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iii. p. 171.
Ptilonorhynchus MacLeayii, Lath. MSS., Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 263.
Corvus squamulosus, Ill., female or young?
Ptilonorhynchus squamulosus, Wagl. Syst. Av. sp. 2, female or young?
Satin Bird, of the Colonists of New South Wales.
Cowry, of the Aborigines of the coast of New South Wales.
Although this species has been long known to ornithologists, and is familiar to the colonists of New South Wales, its habits, which in many respects are most extraordinary, have hitherto escaped attention; or if not entirely so, have never been brought before the scientific world. It is, therefore, a source of high gratification to myself to be the first to place them on record.
One point to which I more particularly allude,—a point of no ordinary interest, both to the naturalist and the general admirer of nature,—is the formation of a bower-like structure by this bird for the purpose of a playing-ground or hall of assembly, a circumstance in its economy which adds another to the many anomalies connected with the Fauna of Australia.
The localities favourable to the habits of the Satin Bower-bird are the luxuriant and thickly-foliaged brushes stretching along the coast from Port Philip to Moreton Bay, the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range, and most of the gullies of the great mountain-chain separating the colony from the interior. So far as is at present known, it is restricted to New South Wales; certainly it is not found so far to the westward as South Australia, and I am not aware of its having been seen on the north coast; but its range in that direction can only be determined by future research.