OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 187 



carefully upon at least 50,000 during the half-hour's approach, 

 away goes the male bird like a flash of lightnintr. You move 

 on again in the full possession of what is left of your self- 

 control after two or three attempts to see the " Mocking-bird 

 of Austraha " on its playground. However, a view of the 

 playground eventually shows you it is a small cleared space of 

 about three feet square in the tangle of twining vegetation. 

 It is made of raised ground, kept fairly well w^eeded by the 

 constant use the male makes of it while dancing to please its 

 mate, in the winter time especially. It is at this period of 

 the year many of the animals in its neighbourhood are mocked 

 in turn. Mr. A. J. Campbell writes very truly of this bird 

 when he characterizes its vocal powers in the following way : 

 — " The powerful, sonorous ring of the Lyre-bird's natural 

 song is not surpassed by any of its Australian compeers ; as 

 to its mocking capabilities, it certainly leaves all the world's 

 mocking-birds far behind.* Its ear is so accurate that it can 

 imitate to the very semitone the vocality of any of its forest 

 friends, whether the solemn ' mo-poke ' of the Owl, the coarse 

 laugh-hke notes of the Great Brown Kingfisher, or the higher 

 pitched and more subdued notes of smaller birds. But the 

 most extraordinary performance is the imitating, not a single 

 bird, but a flock ; therefore it has to produce duplex or 

 double-sounding notes. I have heard it imitate simultaneous 

 sounds exactly like the voices of a flock of Pennant Parrakeets 

 rising from the scrub. It is equally at home with other 

 familiar sounds ; the grunting of the Koala or Native Bear, 

 the barking of the selector's dog, the noise of the splitter's 

 saw, or the clinking of his axe against the metal wedge, all 

 alike are perfectly reproduced in the throat of this most 

 singular feathered mimic.'' Now, the question, raised possibly 



* Dr. Slmfeldt champions the cause of the Mocking-bird {Mimus 

 polyglottus) of North America. 



