SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 41 



often constructed on the site of last year's nest, the female comes round to 

 lay, scratching a hole in the summit of the mound about a foot in depth, into 

 which she crawls to lay her egg. As soon as the egg is laid, the male bird 

 appears and drives the female away, afterwards fixing the egg in an upright 

 position, filling up the hole, trampling down the leaves and mould, and 

 smoothing down the surface in a most business-like manner. From twelve 

 to fifteen large, white, fragile, gra.nulated eggs are placed in an irregular 

 pattern at a depth of about a foot, in the top of the mound, and when the 

 chick bursts its shell it soon scratches its way up to the surface (without any 

 outside assistance from the parent birds), an active little creature, quite able 

 to look after itself. Sometimes the one mound may be used by two or three 

 pairs of Scrub-turkeys, when it may contain as many as thirty-five eggs in all 

 stages of incubation. 



Like the Mallee-hen, these birds, from their scratching habits, find many 

 ground insects, snails, and slugs, and a bird the size of a small turkey can 

 account for a great number of insects every day. 



The Lyre-bird (Menura superha T)avies). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 298, No. 179 ; Leach'a Bird Book, p. 112, No. 237. 



Three distinct species of Lyre-birds inhabit the coastal forests of eastern 

 Australia — -the Victorian Lyre-bird in Gippsland, the above species, peculiar 

 to New South Wales, and the Albert Lyre-bird, which is restricted to the 

 northern river scrubs of New South Wales and southern Queensland, and 

 ranges only as far north as Wide Bay. 



It is somewhat remarkable that these birds are not represented in the rich 

 tropical forests in the north. No bird attracted more attention than our 

 Lyre-bird when first brought under the notice of naturalists. On account of 

 its wonderful tail it was first classed among the Birds of Paradise, then 

 because of its size and powerful scratching feet it was considered to be a 

 gallinaceous biid ; finally, from the study of its anatomy, it was shown to be 

 a perching bird allied to the thrushes. The three species are now placed in 

 the family Menuridce. 



The original native name of the Lyre-bird was Buln-buln, on account 

 of its usual call-note. The early settlers called it in different localities the 

 Mountain-pheasant, the Native Wood-pheasant, or simply the Pheasant, 

 because of its coloration ; in other places it was known as the Mocking- 

 bird, in reference to its capacity for mimicking all the voices of the bush, 

 but its present and most characteristic popular name is the Lyre-bird, in 

 allusion to its wonderful tail, which is shaped like a Greek lyre. Many 

 curious pictures were drawn, and accounts written about the Lyre-birds by 

 travellers in the early days. One said that the male used to stand with its 

 outspread tail turned to the morning breeze and create sweet music by 

 allowing the wind to blow through the stiff feathers, like an ^olian harp. 

 Margaret Catchpole says : " The most beautiful attitude that I once saw the 



