XESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 521 



a bird fly out, and on climbing to tlie nest he found a second egg had 

 been laid. The egg was sliglitly addled and had, Mr. Lc Souef judged, 

 been laid about a week, or shortly after his lirst visit. In both these 

 interesting instances, and upon circunistaniial evidence, it may bo 

 infeiTcd that the respective birds laid two eggs, but there remains the 

 possibility that each egg was deposited by a separate bird, especially 

 in the first case, wluiu the eggs which I cxaniiiud were different. 



I have yet to record another instance of the finding in a nest a 

 second egg after the first had been taken. It occurred on the first 

 October, 1892, when Messrs. Le Souiif, Chandler, and myself went 

 specially to photogiaph an exceedingly picturesque nest. On reaching 

 the spot, and to our astonishment, out flushed a bird which had com- 

 menced to sit upon a fresh egg. From tliis same nest, on the 31st 

 July, or two months previously, Mr. Chandler took the first egg. 



Although not exactly pertaining to its nidification, I may conclude 

 my observations with other remarks as to the history of this mosi 

 remarkable bird. 



A writer has stated that on going to roost at night the Lyre Birds 

 ■■ choose a secluded .spot sheltered from the wind, and mostly in a low 

 tree." My observations arc the reverse of this. About dusk I have 

 watched them, till I almost lost their form, lly sometimes more than 

 one hundred feet \vji to the thick branches of some gi-eat forest 

 patriarch. They ascend by a succession of leaps and short flights from 

 bough to bough and from tree to tree, always surveying the position 

 after each move. I also know for a fact that bii'ds have been observed 

 coming out of gullies to roost on large dead trees on the ridges, where 

 they have been shot. In roosting they do not congregate. Sometimes 

 during moonlight seasons a cock bird from his elevated perch agrecabl}' 

 disturbs the midnight stillness of the forest by his delightful whistle. 

 Speaking about night, it is said that the Powerful Owl ( Jiiwx atrenudj 

 occasionally takes Lyre Birds off their roost. 



The powerful sonorous ring of the Lyre Bii-d's natural song is not 

 surpassed by any of its AustraUan compeers, and, as to its mocking 

 capabilities, it certainly would appear to leave the world's wonderful 

 mocking birds behind. The Lyre Bird's ear is indeed so acciu-ate that 

 it can imitate to the veiy semitone the vocalism of any of its forest 

 friends, whether the " mo-poke ' nocturne of the Boo-book Owl, the 

 coarse laughter-like notes of the Jackass or Great Kingfisher, the 

 crack-like note of the Coach Whip Bird, or the higher-pitched and more 

 subdued notes of smaller fry. But perhaps the most extraordinary 

 vocal perfomiance is the imitating, not a single bird, but a flock. 

 I have heard it imitate simultaneous sounds resembling exactly the 

 voices of a flock of Pennant PaiTakocts rising from the scrub. This 

 clever feathered mimic is equally at home with other familiar forest 

 sounds — the grunting of the so-called native bear (Koala), the barking 

 of the selector's dog, the noise of the splitter's saw, or the clinking of 

 his axe against the metal wedge — all alike are perfectly reproduced in 

 the throat of this wonderful bird. There is a story told of a tramp 

 who heard sawing sounds in a gully hard by. He went down to ask the 

 supposed sawyers for matches, but found he had been duped by a 

 Lvre Bird. 



