320 



MENURID.E. 



fifteen feet in length, six feet in height and five feet in depth, on a cliff side, the lower portion of 

 it being eight feet from the bare sandy soil. The nest was a very large one, constructed of the 

 usual materials, and measured three feet in height, two feet six in width, and six inches across 

 the aperture. Although the nest was easily seen, it could not be approached without the bird 

 observing an intruder. On the following day we left early in the morning to obtain another 

 nest that Mr. Chalker had found the previous month, and which he had visited in company with 

 Mr. N. Etheridge nineteen days before, when it contained a cold, chipped, and apparently 

 deserted egg, in which the latter several times thrust a large pin, reaching nearly half way 

 through an embryo. The nesting place was in a small opening in the pinnacle of a bare rock, 

 in the gorge of the Upper Nepean River, one of the roughest parts of New South Wales. It 

 was on the opposite side of the gorge from where we stood, and it looked like a sheer blank wall 

 of rock. We arrived at the nest, and on removing some boulders I proceeded to photograph it; 

 the structure was of the usual form, with a stairway of sticks, being about fifteen feet up. After 

 being there about twenty minutes we were all surprised to hear the sharp shrill call, as we first 



supposed, of the female in the 



'!)'<^**^ 



vicinity, but we afterwards found 

 it proceeded from a young one 

 in down in the nest. After a 

 hurried lunch down at the river, 

 we returned up the opposite side, 

 arriving at the brink of the gorge 

 precisely five hours after leaving 

 it. This nest has now been 

 mounted and placed in the Aus- 

 tralian Museum, together with 

 the nestling, which lived three 

 days. The nest measures two 

 feet six inches in height, one foot 

 six inches in diameter, and six 

 inches across the aperture. 



Mr. George Savidge, of Cop- 

 manhurst, sends methe following 

 notes : — " In the Cangai scrubs, 

 and on the upper waters of the 

 Clarence River, the blacks found eight eggs of Mcniira supcrha before the end of June 1896, 

 eleven eggs in July, and seven in the first week in August. Last year this species was nearly 

 a month later in nesting ; probably the exceptionally frosty season had something to do with 

 this. The nests were found in a variety of situations ; some were placed on shelfs of rocks 

 twenty-five feet high, and quite inaccessible, others were placed on tho top of tall stumps, or 

 between the spurs of fig-trees, and one was found in a large stag-horn fern growing on the 

 trunk of a tree. One bird nearly touched the black's hand as it flew off its nest. The lining 

 consists of feathers from the bird itself, and is much the same colour as the egg. A few of the 

 eggs were hard set upon, but no nests were found which contained young up to the 6th of 

 August." 



With the accompanying plates of nests of the Lyre-bird, Mr. Savidge has sent iiie the 

 following notes relative to his photographing them : — " I sent the aboriginal ' Cobby ' to the 

 Cangai scrubs about the middle of June, 1909, to search for the nests of Mcnnra supcrha, and 

 have them found as close as possible, arranged that he should stay there till I came up. 

 You can judge of my surprise when he put in his appearance at Copmanhurst the night before 



LVRE-IilRD (NKSTLINf:. 



