^"^I'oo-^ ] KiTSON, Notes on t/u: \' ictoria Lytc-iUrd. 59 



and has, moreover, developed the faculty of ascending slightly 

 leaning trees. 



As regards South Gippsland the Lyre-Bird is doomed to ex- 

 tinction, and that by the agency of man. The mass of hilly country 

 between the valleys of the Latrobe on the north ; the Tarago, Lang 

 Lang, and the Bass on the West ; the Powlett and Tarwin and the 

 narrow strip between Foster and Merriman Creek on the south 

 and south-east, was a large tract, covered with an extremely 

 dense vegetation and in a continuously moist or wet state before 

 settlement took place. It was united to the main mass of the 

 mountain system of eastern Victoria by a narrow elevated tract 

 of volcanic and similarly timbered country between Warragul and 

 Longwarry. \\\ every gully and on every spur the lovely notes 

 of the Lyre- Bird could be heard, and evidence of its occupation 

 could be seen on every hand. Thousands of these birds must 

 have sported about this country, making the otherwise rather 

 silent forest a huge natural concert hall. Now, alas ! the march 

 of settlement, with its breech-loaders, forest spoliation, and bush 

 fires, has brought about a sad change from a naturalist's point of 

 view. With the disappearance of the scrub goes the Lyre-Bird, 

 and as the country gets cleared from various sides so patches only 

 of scrubby country are left. These become the temporary home 

 of such of the outcasts as have escaped the gun, the clearing, and 

 the fire, till they, in their turn, become felled and burnt, when 

 the Lyre- Birds disappear. 



Nest, Egg and Young. 



During my geological survey of the Victorian coalfields area in 

 South Gippsland in the year 1900 I was camped on the Foster 

 River near Jumlmnna, on the edge of a belt of natural forest of an 

 extremely dense character. This scrub was the home of scores of 

 Lyre-Birds, whose lovely notes could be heard all through the day. 



Several nests of these birds were found, and as many observations 

 made concerning the birds and their habits as time and opportunity 

 permitted. One nest was situated in the side of one of the short, 

 deep channels (" blind creeks ") that drained the swampy portion 

 of the river fiat. As is customary in South Gippsland, the timber 

 had been taken " in the face " — i.e., all the scrub and trees up to, 

 say, 4 feet 6 inches in diameter had been felled, but as they had 

 not then been burnt, they lay in hopeless confusion, forming a 

 tangled mass of logs, branches, and scrub, through which young 

 scrub was growing. It was, therefore, an awkward place for stock, 

 or even human beings, to get into — a fact that some of the birds 

 had apparently recognized by building their nests in it. Across 

 the river lay the natural forest forming the feeding and sporting 

 ground of the birds, and containing some nests also. I found the 

 nest in question one morning by noticing the female bird fiy, or 

 rather float, noiselessly away from the place on my approach. 

 This is a common practice with the Lyre-Bird. A young bird, 

 un feathered save for tufts of down on its crown and upper back, 



