20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



hatched. Whether the same nest is used for the hatching of both 

 eggs I cannot say, but think it must be so, for she would not 

 otherwise have known the number of eggs laid by the one bird. 

 The nests too, it seems, are difficult to find, and are not plentiful. 



I could not help admiring Mrs. Jefferson for the interest she 

 seemed to take in natural history, such being very uncommon 

 among Australians. She had succeeded in getting some of the 

 young Lyre-birds, old enough to feed themselves, and had tried 

 to tame them, keeping them, I think, in an enclosure fenced with 

 wire netting, but they only lived for about a fortnight. 



When staying in Wahafla, the principal mining town of central 

 Gippsland, I was told that Lyre-birds were at times seen on the 

 hills, and, though not common, they could hardly be said to be 

 scarce. The hills immediately surrounding the town are bare, all 

 timber having been cut down for mining purposes, and for fuel, but 

 those beyond the town are wooded. I did not see any of the birds 

 myself, being in the place only a day and a half. I also spent 

 several days on a station about fifteen miles south of this. It was 

 a wild place, being situated in a great forest, only a few spots at 

 large intervals having been cleared of trees by settlers. The people 

 I stayed with had been a very short time on the place, and only a 

 few trees had been felled round the homestead. There was a creek 

 running close by, and in the scrub, composed of young trees and 

 bushes, which grew thickly on its banks, I heard several times late 

 in the afternoon the peculiar whistle of the Lyre-bird. In company 

 with one of my friends I set out early one afternoon to some 

 densely wooded patches in the forest, some two miles from the 

 house. The country here is high, but not very hilly, or in other 

 words, deep valleys are not common. We first went through what 

 very much resembled an English copse, and here found a large 

 number of places where the ground had been scratched up, often at 

 the roots of trees. Mounds, too, resembling mole heaps, but larger, 

 neater, and smoother in appearance, were not wanting. They were 

 pointed out to me as the work of the Lyre-bird, the large and 

 regular mounds being their dancing beds, on which they dance and 

 twirl, showing themselves off to the females. When amusing 

 themselves in this manner the male bird mocks all the other birds 

 in the bush, and so perfectly does it imitate their voices and cries, 

 that only by its introducing its own whistle now and then, does a 

 person, out of sight, know the originator of the sounds. 



