Vol. V. 

 1905 



1 KiTSOX, Notes on the I'ictoria Lyre-Bird. 6r 



One of her most graceful movements was walking along the 

 swaying frond of a tree-fern. As the frond bent under her weight 

 she gradually reversed her position till she was hanging head down- 

 wards, suspended by her claws, and quietly warbling the while. 

 This bird was the most sensible of any of the kind that I have 

 seen. She seemed to realize at once that I had no intention of 

 hurting the young one. and though evincing every sign of great 

 distress while her offspring was screeching, became quite reassured 

 of its safety when the screeches ceased. 



The bird frequently walked down the log while I was standing 

 at the nest with my head within 2 feet of her. Once I touched 

 her feet with my hand, and I think with a little time and patience 

 I could have caught her. Several times I made a grab at her 

 leg, but she only jumped and floated away to another log, without 

 evincing any signs of fear. Again, to test her timidity, I shouted, 

 waved my arms, and threw little sticks at her without frightening 

 her from her position, and even when one stick hit her on the head 

 she simply floated to another log and resumed her observations. 



The entrance to the nest can be seen just on the right of the 

 log under the tail of the bird and just to the left of the extremity 

 of the blackbutt spray with large leaves. 



The picture of the young bird (Plate VIII.) shows it resting in 

 my hat, surrounded with sprigs of tree-fern {Alsophila aitstralis), 

 dogwood {Cassinia aculeata), blackbutt {Eitcalypttis pihdaris), musk 

 [Aster argophvlliis) and laurel {Pittosporiim undulatum). It was 

 very frightened when first taken out of the nest, but soon rested 

 quite contentedly in the hat while being photographed. 



When in the nest it commenced to screech immediately anything 

 appeared in the entrance, and thrust itself back as far as it could, 

 meanwhile keeping almost on its back, with its powerful feet pushed 

 out in front, and screeching. As it grew older it sometimes pecked 

 at my hand when thrust into the nest, and always screeched. This, 

 however, was never long sustained, except on movement oi the 

 hand, and it remained quite still if the hand were still. 



I watched it carefully till it was nearly fledged, but one day I 

 heard the distress signal several times in rapid succession. On 

 reaching the place I found the poor creature dead in the nest. It 

 had suffered no apparent injury, there were no signs of damage to 

 the nest, or of any struggle, and the only conclusion I could come 

 to was that it had been bitten by a tiger snake [Hoplocephalits 

 ciirius). The nest was in the side of the gully, about 5 feet 

 from the bottom, and easfly accessible to animals and reptiles. 

 The snake had, I think. ])ut its head into the nest, been 

 pecked by the bird, and after at once biting it had withdrawn 

 and disappeared. I made careful search to confirm this view, 

 but could not, as the place afforded no chance of seeing a 

 snake-track of any kind. Had a fox killed it the bird would 

 undoubtedly have been dragged out of the nest. The snake. 

 as every bushman knows, is of a very enterprising nature, and 

 particularly partial to exploring nests of birds, whether on the 



