526 



L Y RE-BIRD 



active habits, and doubtless requiring facilities for taking violent 

 exercise, could not possibly be kept long in confinement until the 

 method of menageries is vastly improved, as doubtless Avill be the 

 case some day, and, Ave may hope, before the disappearance from 

 the face of the earth of foi-ms of vertebrate life most instructive to 

 the zoologist. 



Three species of Memira have been indicated — the old M. 

 sujjerba, the Lyre-bird proper, now known for nearly a century, 

 which inhabits New South Wales, the southern part of Queensland, 

 and perhaps some parts of the colony of Victoria ; M. victoriai, 

 separated from the former by Gould {Proe. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 23), 

 and said to take its place near Melbourne ; and 71/. alherti, first 

 described by C. L. Bonaparte {Coiisp. Avium, i. p. 215) on Gould's 

 authoi'ity ; and, though discovered on the Richmond river in New 

 South Wales, having apparently a more northern range than the 

 other two. All those have the apparent bulk of a hen Pheasant, 

 but are really much smaller, and their general plumage is of a 

 sooty brown, relieved by rufous on the chin, throat, some of the 

 Aving-feathers, and the tail-coverts. The wings, containing tAventy- 



one remiges, are rather short and rounded ; 

 the legs ^ and feet very strong, Avith long, 

 nearly straight claAvs. In the immature 

 and female the tail is somcAvhat long, though 

 affording no very remarkable character, 

 except the possession of sixteen rectrices ; 

 but in the fiilly-plumaged male of M. superha 

 and M. victory it is developed in the extra- 

 ordinary fashion that gives the bird its 

 common English name. The tAvo exterior 

 feathers (Fig. 1, a, h) have the outer Aveb 

 very narroAv, the inner very broad, and they 

 curve at first outwards, then somcAvhat in- 

 Avards, and near the tip outwards again, 

 bending round forAvards so as to present 

 a lyre-like form. But this is not all ; their 

 I broad inner Aveb, Avhich is of a liA'^ely chest- 

 I nut colour, is apparently notched at regular 

 intervals by spaces that, according to the 

 angle at Avhich they are vieAved, seem either 

 ])lack or transparent ; and this effect is, on 

 examination, found to be due to the barbs 

 at those spaces being destitute of barbules. 

 The middle pair of feathers (Fig. 2, a, h) is nearly as abnormal. 

 These have no outer Aveb, and the inner Aveb very narroAV ; near 



^ The metatarsals are very remarkable in form, as already noticed by Eyton 

 {loc. cit.), and their tendons strongly ossified. 



Fig. 1. 

 Portion of Outer Tail- 



FEATHF.K. 



(ft. in ordinary iiosition. 

 /). seen edgeways.) 

 Mbnura superba. 



