MENIRA. 325 



New South Wales being absolutely protected all the year round, I have seen men in the 

 metropolis with baskets, containing fifty or more tails of the male birds, hawking them for sale 

 in the streets. From inquiries made, they were principally obtained in the mountain ranges of 

 the Snowy River district. Victorians more particularly at present will have to legislate so that 

 the interesting bird dedicated to the late Queen Victoria does not become extinct, or at least a 

 rarity in that State. Since the introduction of the Fox, that scourge and pest of every poultry 

 yard, upwards of forty tails of this species has been found at Bayswaterin a single lair or burrow 

 of this acclimatised curse. 



While searching for food among the fallen leaves, both this and the preceding species rest 

 on the left foot, and use the right to throw or scrape the leaves behind them, alternately from 

 right to left. I have had several opportunities of watching these birds in confinement at the 

 Australian Museum, but have never observed them use the left foot to scratch with, or both feet 

 like a domestic fowl. Young birds taken from the nest thrive very well, and soon get domesti- 

 cated if allowed their freedom in a garden, provided it is in the district in which they are bred, 

 for they do not as a rule long survive after removal to a different climate. They are, however, as 

 mischievous and full of tricks as a monkey. I knew of a young male in South Gippsland that 

 used to enter the men's hut, jump on the table, and throw about the knives, tin plates and 

 pannikins. When driven out it would ascend on to the roof of a house they were engaged in 

 erecting close at hand, and amuse itself by casting down hammers, chisels, nails, or any other 

 small articles lying about. 



Although Lyre-birds pass most of their time on the ground, in the evening I have seen them 

 in secluded parts of the gullies make a zig-zag ascent from branch to branch, to the bushy tops 

 of tall trees. The most melodious notes I ever heard from this species was poured forth by a 

 male early one spring morning, from its roosting place in the top of a Blackwood tree growing 

 on the edge of a creek. Throughout the day I have never seen them frequent trees unless 

 disturbed, and then only the low undergrowth. 



Mr. Joseph Gabriel, of Melbourne, who has a wide experience of these birds, has sent 

 me the following notes : — " In my rambles through the numerous gullies of the Dandenong 

 Ranges, I have observed Meniiva victorue in large numbers during the early years of my experience. 

 The birds start very early to build their nests, sometimes in the first week in May, and take 

 some time to complete their work, as I have found unlined nests as late as the first week in 

 August. The majority of the birds lay in June and July. I have found a fresh egg as 

 late as the 22nd September. The time taken in hatching the egg is still a vexed question ; I 

 should say about five or six weeks, as I have found the birds so frequently absent from their 

 nests, the eggs being invariably cold. Unfortunately this is somewhat vague, and I have tried 

 hard to obtain better results. The Olinda Creek, which passes through Lilydale, takes its 

 source in these ranges. It has two main branches with many tributaries, and I hav'e noticed 

 that the eggs taken in the branch whose source is Mount Observatory, are quite fresh in the 

 first week in August, those taken in the other branch four or five miles away only, are nearly 

 all incubated. I do not know whether this gully is warmer, or whether it points to the fact that 

 the birds are less frequently disturbed. 



" I have found nests in all kinds of places, on rocks in centre of creeks, on leaning ferns, logs 

 over creeks, butts of trees, sides of hills, in forks of trees sometimes forty to sixty feet up, tops of 

 burnt out stumps, sometimes over thirty feet up, on banks facing a creek and here they look quite 

 picturesque ; on branches of musk trees, and also on crowns of ferns (Dicksouia hilliardieyi), here 

 showing a remarkable instinct, as they must rear their young before the spring of the new fronds 

 takes place, which of course destroys the nest. The birds invariably build the nest the same, dome- 

 shaped with oval mouth at the side. It is composed of fine sticks, the inner portion of the fibrous 

 roots of ferns ('D. hiUiardici'ij, and just before laying its egg the bird lines the nest with a number 



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