BIRDS OF OUR BUSH 



and, in sympathy with their surroundings, they speak in a 

 whisper or remain silent. 



In such a locality one would expect to meet the marvel- 

 lous and the uncanny, and it is fitting that here should be 

 the home of one of the most remarkable of Nature's crea- 

 tures. The silence, the solitude, the subdued green light, 

 form a remarkably apt setting for the prince of all mocking 

 birds, and the jnost strikingly beautiful of Australia's 

 feathered inhabitants. 



It has been the privilege of few people in these days of 

 advanced civilisation and settlement to see the Lyre Bird 

 in its natural surroundings. For this reason, amongst 

 others, we have worked long and steadily in the hope that 

 we should be able to supplement any description we may 

 attempt by faithful likeness through the medium of photo- 

 graphy. So far we have not succeeded, and it is with deep 

 disappointment that this volume is sent to press without any 

 illustration to assist our powers of description. Words in 

 such a case convey little, even were we gifted to use them. 

 However, if we have been unsuccessful in picturing the 

 Lyre Bird, we certainly have learned somewhat of its habits 

 in the attempt. 



We remember well our first experience. We were but 

 very young at the time, and so were unequipped with the 

 means and the opportunity for carrying out our ambitions 

 in the study of the ways of Nature. When the week-end 

 house at Ferntree Gully was built, we saw a gleam of hope, 

 and decided to work the surrounding hills during the nest- 

 ing season. It was while filling in time making walking 

 tours of the country before the commencement of the season 

 that we met with our quarry. 



We had walked from the Gully a distance of seven miles 

 or so to Olinda, a small township in the heart of the moun- 

 tains, and had sat down to recuperate before commencing 

 the return journey, when we became conscious of the hearty 

 laugh of an old Kookaburra — a laugh in which our practised 

 ears detected something peculiar. Some subtle variation 

 in its delivery or in its pitch, or, it may have been, some- 

 thing unusual in the position from which the sounds eman- 

 ated. We realised that we had discovered a Lyre Bird. 



The reader must remember that at this time we had 

 read little about any of our native birds. What we had 

 read about the Lyre Bird had left us with the clear convic- 



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