Vol. V. 



1905 



j KiTSON, Notes 07t the Victoria Lyrc-Bird. 65 



Other instances have been cited of a Lyre-Bird having been reared 

 and kept for lengthened or brief periods of timef in the Drouin, 

 Loch, and Omeo districts. Personally, I think it would be 

 impracticable to keep a bird in captivity even after rearing it, 

 unless it had access to some scrub affording shelter and a supply 

 of insects. 



General Notes. 



Though Lyre-Birds are chiefi}^ found in the dense scrubby forest, 

 they at times can be seen in fairly open country, but in such cases 

 there is dense scrub at hand, and they disappear into this on the 

 first approach of danger. In South Gippsland, where I have seen 

 and heard hundreds of these birds, I never once saw them singing 

 in cleared land, or even in open forest. Moreover, in no instance 

 have I seen them feeding or running about on open ground. On 

 one occasion I noticed about eight of them cross a narrow strip 

 of cleared ground, about five chains wide, from one patch of scrub 

 to another. They did this just before dusk by running quickly, 

 jumping over logs, and floating one after the other. During the 

 great bush fires in South Gippsland in i8g8 hundreds of Lyre-Birds 

 were burnt or starved, and I have been told by settlers that 

 in the Jeetho district some of these birds came out of the burnt 

 scrub and fed among the fowls near the farmhouses. This was 

 doubtless owing to the destruction of insect life. It would in- 

 dicate that they could in necessity become graminivorous birds. 

 Mr. J. W. Bainbridge informs me that two Lyre-Birds have become 

 so tame near Mrs. Manfield's Temperance Hotel, at the foot of 

 Mount Buffalo, that Mr. Manfield has photographed one of the pair 

 perched on the fence near the place. 



Lyre-Birds may be seen at altitudes from 100 feet above sea level 

 in the dense gullies of South Gippsland to those of close on 6.000 

 feet, or as high as arboreal vegetation ascends, in the Australian 

 Alps. In November, 1890, when returning to Harrietville from 

 Mt. Feathertop (6,303 feet), in the Australian Alps. I saw between 



hatched ; then snared the old bird, and carried them with the nest to a large wire- 

 netted aviary. The chicken was thus fed naturally by the mother. On one occasion 

 I had a chicken in the nest for 42 days. A bird that had been in my aviary for three 

 or four years developed only three of the ' frond ed feathers.' In my opinion 

 the male bird does not reach its full plumage for eight years. I have never 

 found more than 24 of the brown bars on a mature bird. It was a tedious and 

 difficult task to accustom my birds to artificial food, and I lost thirteen before 

 succeeding. The proof that I got the right system in the end was shown in 

 the fact that after my birds had been maliciously poisoned they were opened and 

 found to be lined with healthy fat, as the saying is. The late Mr. A. A. C. Le Souef 

 offered me £/^0 for the collection, and later Jamrach's agent offered ;i^ll5 a pair for 

 three domesticated pairs, to be delivered in London. I was going to accept this offer, 

 when all my birds were poisoned ; then I lost heart and gave it up. If the National 

 Park is ever established some Lyre-Birds should be turned down there. With the 

 right conditions they would breed in captivity. The experience of my own aviary 

 satisfied me as to that." — Eds. 



t Mr. F. P. Godfrey, in The Etnu (vol. v., p. 33), mentions Mr. S. M-Neilly, of 

 Drouin, having had a male Lyre-Bird in a state of domestication for 20 years. A 

 photograph of this particular bird is herewith given (see Plate X.) — Eds. 



