But the wonder of these things goes on increasing, and at last we come to the Gardener-bird, who, as its name implies, lays out a regular garden with a lawn and flower-beds, and a summer-house in it, as well. The lawn, however, is made of soft, verdant moss, and stuck about in it, at various points, are the brightest blossoms and berries that the country where the bird lives—which is New Guinea—can afford. As these wither, the “gardener” takes them away, and brings new ones in their place. The summer-house, which is about two feet high, is built of sticks round a small tree, which projects through the top and makes a central support. From this the walls radiate outwards, in the shape of a tent or wigwam, and, to make them look smooth and pretty, they are all covered over with orchid stems. On the top—either round the projecting tent-pole, or over it—the birds put moss, arranging it in the form of a sugar-loaf. At one side the wigwam is left open, and it is in front of the opening that the lawn and flower-beds are placed. The birds can sit in their tent, or summer-house, and look out at their garden, or walk about their garden and look at their pretty summer-house; and if that is not romance in animal life I am sure I do not know what is. The bird that does all this is not very handsome itself, and this makes its appreciation of the beauty of a garden and summer-house—which must be much the same as our own—all the more remarkable. Signor Beccari, an Italian gentleman, was the first to discover and describe the species, and he has made a drawing of it and its garden, which may be seen in volume ix. of _The Gardener’s Chronicle_, at p. 333. One can only hope that he did not “obtain,” as they call it, any specimens—for to kill a creature that makes a garden and looks after the flowers in it, taking them away when they wither and bringing fresh ones in their stead, is, to my mind, to do something but little short of murder. Perhaps if it watered them as well it really would be thought wrong to take such a bird’s life: but where are we to draw the line? Many of these Bower-birds are wonderful mimickers, and can reproduce all sorts of sounds so exactly that people in Australia are often taken in by them. Mr. Morton, of Benjeroop, relates how a neighbour of his had been driving cattle to a certain spot, and on his way back discovered a nest in a prickly needle-bush, or hakea tree. While “threading the needle branches after the nest (to take, that is destroy it, of course), he thought he heard cattle breaking through the scrub, and the barking of dogs in the distance, and at once fancied his cattle had broken away, but could see no signs of anything wrong. He heard other peculiar noises, and glancing at his dog, as much as to say, ‘What does it mean?’ he saw the sagacious animal, with head partly upturned, eyeing a spotted Bower-bird, perched in the next tree.”