66 Mr. A. H. Evans : with the [Ibis, 



the Lyre-Bird (Menura victoria) . The scrub is chiefly on 

 one side of a valley, into which we descended through a patch 

 of ground denuded of its high trees, but still covered with 

 bushes and dense vegetation. This upper part of the valley 

 is a great haunt of the Coach-whip Bird [Psophodes crepitans), 

 one of the species whose name really corresponds with its 

 voice ; and when my friends began to imitate its sharp 

 " whip-crack " note, the birds joined in from all sides, 

 while I was still under the impression that our party alone 

 was making the sounds. In these lower saplings and bushes 

 the Satin Bower-Bird certainly breeds, for some boys had 

 taken two eggs the year before, which I saw at the farm, 

 accompanied by that of the Lyre-Bird. The nest had been 

 removed, but I saw the place where it had been built, in the 

 fork of a sapling, after the fashion of our Jay. A bower, 

 which probably belonged to the same pair of birds, was 

 perhaps a quarter of a mile distant, but this had also been 

 removed, as it was out of repair and the male had doubtless 

 deserted it. We heard the Bower-Bird^s notes when we were 

 quietly watching the higher scrubs, but we never saw it on 

 this occasion. 



Passing below the shade of the trees we made straight for 

 the part of the bank where Mr. CooVs well-known pair of 

 Lyre-Birds live ; there are at least two pairs in this valley, 

 but one of them is much less fearless than the other, and 

 hardly changes its breeding-place from year to year. We 

 first inspected the huge nest built in the top of a sloping 

 tree-fern^ and the little blackish nestling, and then sat 

 down close to it on the chance of a glimpse of the male; 

 but though the hen soon came to keep us company, 

 scratched about like a tame fowl within a few yards 

 for the little snails on which these birds feed, and kept 

 scrambling up and perching on a tree-fern stump to inspect 

 us, while uttering a sort of querulous grunt, her consort 

 was too wary to appear *. We remained in these delightful 

 surroundings for some time, and then I waited alone while 



* Foi' a full account and photograph of this bird see " The Emu," 

 vol. xvi. 1916, pp. 101-103. 



