In their natural state, the satin bower-birds associate in autumn in small parties; and Mr. Gould states that they may then often be seen on the ground near the sides of rivers, particularly where the brush feathers the descending bank down to the water's edge. The male has a loud liquid call; and both sexes frequently utter a harsh, gutteral note, expressive of surprise and displeasure. Geffrey Chaucer, in his argument to _The Assemblie of Foules_, relates that, "All foules are gathered before Nature on St. Valentine's day, to chose their makes. A formell egle beyng beloved of three tercels, requireth a yeeres respite to make her choise: upon this triall, _Qui bien aime tard oublie_-'He that loveth well is slow to forget.'" The female satin-bower bird in the Regent's Park seems to have taken a leaf out of the 'formell egle's' book: for I cannot discover that her humble and most obsequious swain has been rewarded for his attentions though they have been continued through so many weary months; but we shall never be able entirely to solve these mysteries till we become possessed of the rare ring sent to the King of Sarra by the King of Arable, 'by the vertue whereof' his daughter understood 'the language of all foules,' unless we can Call up him that left untold The story of Cambuscan bold, Of Camball and of Algersife, And who had Canace to wife, That own'd the virtuous ring and glass, And of the wondrous horse of brass, On which the Tartar king did ride. Edmund Spenser, with due reverence for Dan Chauser (well of English undefiled), has indeed done his best to supply the defect,[C] and has told us that Cambello's sister was fair Canacee, That was the learnedst lady in her days, Well seem in every science that mote be, And every secret work of nature's ways, In witty riddles, and in wise soothsays, In power of herbs and tunes of beasts and birds: but we learn from him no more of the ring than 'Dan Chaucer' tells us:-- The vertue of this ring, if ye woll here, Is this, that if she list it for to were Upon her thombe, or in her purse it bere, There is no foule that fleeth under heven That she no shall understand his steven,[D] And know his meaning openly and plaine, And answer him in his language againe: as Canace does in her conversation with the falcon in _The Squires Tale_. Nor is the 'vertue' of the ring confined to bird-intelligence, for the knight who came on the 'steed of brasse,' adds,-- And every grasse that groweth upon root She shall well know to whom it will do boot, And be his wounds never so deep and wide. But we must return from these realms of fancy to a country hardly less wonderful; for Australia presents, in the realities of its quadrupedal forms, a scene that might well pass for one of enchantment. [Footnote C: _Fairy Queen_, book iv. cant. 2, _et seq_.] [Footnote D: Sound.] * * * * *