The _Grande Encyclopédie_ has given a picture of the gardener-bird's pleasure house. He is called in most scholarly parlance the Amblyornis inornata, because he is lacking in personal beauty. One would take his house for the work of some intelligent delicate pygmy. We find the description of it, after the Italian traveller M. O. Beccari[2] "In crossing a magnificent forest M. Beccari found himself suddenly in the presence of a little conical cabin, in front of which was a lawn strewn with flowers; he at once recognized the sort of hut which M. Bruijn's huntsmen had described to him as the work of a dark bird somewhat larger than a blackbird. He made a very exact sketch of it, and verifying the native's tales by his own observation, he found out how the bird makes this building which is not so much a nest as a pleasure house. The amblyornis chooses a little clearing with unbroken lawn and a small tree in the middle. Around this tree or bush which serves as axis, the bird places a little moss, then he plants slantwise the branches of a plant which will continue to grow for some time; juxtaposition of branches form the inclined walls of the hut. On one side they are left open to make a doorway, before which is the garden whose elements are gathered with difficulty, tuft by tuft, at some distance. After having carefully cleaned the lawn, the amblyornis sows it with flowers and fruits which he collects in the neighbourhood, and which he renews from time to time." This primitive gardener belongs to the bird of paradise family, remarkable for the beauty of their plumage. It seems that not being able to dress himself, he has exteriorized his instinct. According to travellers, these cabins are true houses of rendezvous, the country-boxes of the seventeenth century, the "follies" of the XVIIIth. The gallant bird ornaments it with everything that might please the invited female; if she is satisfied, it is the abode of love, after having been that of declarations. I do not know whether these oddities have been given the importance which they should have been, in the history of birds and of humanity. The scholar, the only person knowing such details, usually fails utterly to understand them. One savant whom I read, thinks of the thieving magpie, and adds, these traits which are common to them ally them closely to birds of paradise and corvida. Doubtless, but that is not very important. The grave fact is the gathering of the first flower. The useful fact explains animality; the useless fact explains man. Now, it is of capital importance to show that the useless fact is not peculiar to man alone.