qi2 NESTS AA'D EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The oldest infoi-mation I possess dates back to 1847, when a relative 

 of mine commissioned a blackfellow named McNabb (a somewhat 

 characteristic Caledonian name for an aborigine of the long defunct 

 YaiTa Yan-a tribe) to obtain some tail feathers. He was absent a 

 few days and retumed with five tails, which he procured on the Yarra 

 side of the Dandenong Ranges, and for which he received the reward 

 of one sliilling each. 



Considering that the position of the Men lira on the great list of 

 birds is unique, and that the eyes of almost every ornithologist are 

 directed towards this wonderful bird, not much has been written and 

 surely much has yet to be ascertained regarding the economy of a bird 

 that will soon become scarce on account of its particular haunts being 

 invaded and destroyed by the march of civilisation, the enactment of 

 laws by Governments without regard to the proper protection of 

 peculiar native fauna (the Game Act notwithstanding, which in letter 

 now protects the Lj're Bird all the year) and the introduction of such 

 vermin as foxes. 



I have endeavoured to add my quota to the literary knowledge of 

 the Lyre Bird by the publication of such articles as ' In the Wilds of 

 Gipp-siand — Lyre Bii-d Shooting" (1877), "Notes about Lyre Birds" 

 (read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 1884, and after- 

 wards reprinted in the " Scientific American "), and " Lyre Bird 

 Nesting " (1884). Here it may be deemed proper to cull and re-write 

 the more important and interesting parts of these articles, adding 

 thereto subsequent personal obsei-vations as well as information 

 furnished bv friends and collectors favoiirably situated, amongst whom 

 I may mention Messrs. D. Le Souef, J. Gabriel, R. C. Chandler 

 Robert Hughes, A. W. Milligan, and I. W. De Lany. 



My first experiences among Lyre Birds were somewhat rough if not 

 romantic. Towards the ends of the summers of 1875 and 1877, 

 I visited some virgin forest countiT tliat was being thrown open for 

 selection at Neerim, about twentv miles northward of what is now the 

 flourishing district of Warragul, or the Brandy Creek of the old coaching 

 days. Of course, much of tlie timber round about Neerim must be 

 demolished now, but as I saw it one wonders how the rich chocolate- 

 coloured soil, however generous and watered as it is with numerous 

 delightfullv cool and clear iiinning streams, could siistain siich a wealth 

 of giant vegetation. The i-eader may gather some idea of its semi- 

 tropical gi'owth, so to speak, if he can imagine three great forests 

 rolled into one thus : — lastly, thickly studded elegant fern-trees 

 entvrined with various parasitical creepers, fomiing faii-y-like bowers 

 carpeted with a ground scnib of innumerable ferns ; secondly, trees of 

 medium height, such as sassafras, musk, pittosporum, native hazel, 

 blackwood and other ax?acias, &c. : and thirdlv, towering above all a 

 great forest of gigantic eucalvpts. Within, and under the triple shades 

 of these leafv solitudes, is the true home of the wonderful Meniirn. 

 commonlv but eiToneouslv called a Pheasant by the selectors. 



On the occasion of the first trip the score of miles between the 

 main Gippsland road and Neerim occupied nine hours of travelling, 

 and was onlv marked bv an uncertain " blazed ' track, therefore I took 



