^°\m^] ROBERTS, Prince Bdzvard's Lyre- Bird. 245 



no egg has been taken (though the opportunity has frequently 

 presented itself), as this nest was most interestingly placed in a 

 cold, damp, absolutely sunless cave, and was so easy of approach 

 for observation that it was left for this purpose. The position 

 from which the picture was made was also in a nesting group, 

 and within half a mile north, south, east or west were further 

 nesting groups. And so it goes on all over the area. 



Ijut it must not be thought that the birds confine themselves 

 to this territorial system except at breeding time. They are com- 

 munistic, and scattered indiscriminately over the countryside, 

 congregating wliere food is plentiful. A male may be seen pick- 

 ing the moss over on a sloping rock, whistling, and quite content 

 with himself: a hundred yards away a couple of other males are 

 playing about between boulders, running along logs, or up a slop- 

 ing tree and parachuting down. An odd hen or two will be seen 

 here and there. Peace, perfect peace ! But in April the nesting 

 instinct awakes at the first breath of winter, and is manifested 

 in the wish of the male to acquire a territory of his own, a group 

 of rocks for a castle, a few secluded ]iatches of undergrowth for 

 dancing mounds, and a sufficient territory for a food supi)ly. 

 This instinct becomes an obsession : he fights fiercely for his place 

 in the sun ; he whistles his defiance and possession ; he dances on 

 the mounds to show his art. The hen comes to watch him, some- 

 times several at a time, and witnesses the almost sacred rites of 

 the mound carried out with exquisite punctilio, and there is some- 

 thing almost Druidical in these ceremonies amongst these granite 

 monoliths. Once he is established, the hen makes a choice, and 

 perhaps more than one may choose the same territory or the 

 same male. Which it is I do not know, but it results in battles 

 on the part of the females. I will give no account of the 

 mound di.splays or courting, for though doubtless inclusive vm- 

 der the heading "Bird Territory," they are so perplexing and 

 entrancing that a special article would be required. Undoubtedly 

 the mounds are signs of possession, notice boards for others to 

 keep off, and in a good many cases if the lie of the land is suit- 

 able, constitute actual boundary marks. 



Once established, the pair proceeds with the matter of nest- 

 ing. Plate 2 introduces a view within a nesting group of rocks. 

 It is a small part of B, as the largest rocks did not lend them- 

 selves to photography. Within a hundred yards of the camera 

 were six nests, new, old, dilapidated, three on sloping ledges, one 

 in a sulcus on a round boulder, one in a tree stump, and one in 

 a mass of rock which had fallen down a 50 feet crack, and was 

 stuck 8 feet up. This nest is illustrated in Plate 3, A, and would 

 weigh 50 or 60 lbs. ; it was occupied four years ago, and this 

 year. A newnest was constructed last year. In 1919 I fancy it 

 M'as the nest in the tree stump, but of this one, and this one only, 

 I cannot speak positively. A (Careful scrutiny of these nests re- 

 veals most of the interesting points in nest building. All the 

 positions in which the nests are built are exemplified except one, 

 viz., the ground, which is very exceptional here. There is the 



