NESTS AA'D EGGS OF AUSTRAUAN BIRDS. 51:; 



tho opportunity of travelling up on foot with a party of selpctor friends, 

 but I had to return alone. On the second trip I was again alone, and 

 portions of the forest were on fire, the track at intervals leading by 

 roaring and burnins; patches, sometimes througli a blackened waste of 

 prostrate timber still smouldering. Where trees had recently fallen, 

 if I passed on the windward side T uncomfortably felt their feverish 

 dying brcatli. and far too frequcntlv others cra.shcd down in the neigh- 

 bourhood, liringing to my mind \'ivid recollections of unfortunate 

 bushmcn who had yielded up the ghost pinned to the chocolate-coloured 

 soil by detached boughs. 



However, during the two trips, and notwith.standing the extremely 

 shy disposition of these birds, I was enabled to shoot ten males, all 

 with fresh new tails, besides as many females as I required for my 

 collection. Although Lyre Birds were numerous, great difficulty 

 and much patience had to be exercised in procuring them, so 

 tcrriblv shy are they. You patrol leisurely up a gully or 



along tho survey lines till you hear a bird mennly whistling on its 

 hillock, or dancing ground, a little di.stance in, then you commence 

 carefullv — oh, so carefully, for one false step, an extra shuffle of the 

 leaves, or the snapping of a twig under foot, and your prey simplv 

 disappears as if bv magic — to crawl on vour hands and knees, as oiicn 

 as not wriggling snake fashion on your stomach through feras and scrub 

 from stump to stump and fro7n tree to tree. Listen ! the bird stops singing 

 as if instinctively kno^ving danger is approaching, whereupon you have 

 to become like a statue, fixed to some fern root, and dare not move a 

 muscle, no, not even if you feel a land-leech atta^-king your legs, or a 

 large mosquito stinging the tip of youi' nose. Presently the bird 

 commences whistling as joyously as ever. On you creep, every yard 

 nearer, so that with the excitement your heart increases in palpitation 

 till it throbs so loudly that you fancy the bird will hear it. All the 

 time the close humid scrub bathes you in perspiration, while great 

 beads stand upon your forehead, then rolling off, patter on the dried 

 leaves beneath you. Affairs are desperate now, for at last vou are 

 within shooting distance and are peering through the fems with 

 uplifted gim, and finger trembling upon the trigger ; but, alas, the bird 

 possessing shai-per eyes than vou discovers vou first, and is that very 

 second off noiselessly and unperceived. Tliere is no altcmative left but 

 to retrace your steps to the track, and your chagrin can be bettor 

 imagined than expressed. This operation you mav repeat on an average 

 five times before you get even the slightest possible chance of shooting 

 a bird. But I found the females easy to bag. for they frequently leapt 

 into the trees overhead to survey me. 



In addition to procuring specimens T was enabled to get glimpses of 

 the remarkable Lyre Birds at home. Each male bird appeared to 

 possess a little hillock or mound of earth, wliif^h it scrapes up 

 with its immense claws, and upon which it promenades while displaying 

 its beautiful tail by reflecting and slinking the appendage over its back 

 within a few inches of the head, all the while making the gullies or 

 forest ring with the most melodious whi.stle-like notes, interspersed 

 33 



