,/:, fJ n t P T Vict. Nat. 



104 ssoie - LVol. XXXV. 



Lyre-Birds. — Nature-lovers who have stayed at Sherbrooke 

 this season have had a special opportunity of hearing Lyre- 

 birds. There is quite a family party of these remarkable 

 birds that seems to have its principal habitat in the forest 

 adjacent to the tables and fire-places erected for the con- 

 venience of picnickers at the junction of the track from Sher- 

 brooke with those leading to Belgrave and the " Giant Tree." 

 They can be heard calling round this portion of the reserve at 

 almost any time in the day, but the best opportunity is, of 

 course, the early morning. It is well worth the labour of getting 

 out of bed betimes to listen to a performance by this wonderful 

 mocking bird, with his remarkable imitations of the Laughing 

 Jackass, the Coachwhip-bird, and a sound like a stonebreaker's 

 hammer, with many other calls. After a good many attempts, 

 I was one morning fortunate enough to see one of these birds 

 doing his dance on a mound not many yards distant from where 

 I had concealed myself. I watched him going round and 

 round, nodding his head up and down and stamping his feet, 

 all the time emitting strident notes and imitating the birds 

 that I have above mentioned. At times he would spread his 

 wings as well as his tail-feathers and positively rush round the 

 little hillock. At this time there was a whirring sound made, 

 and it was somewhat difficult to distinguish as to whether it 

 came from the fluttering wings or from the bird's throat. I 

 was near enough to be able to notice the beautiful effect of 

 the brown and white bars on the contour of the tail feathers, 

 from which the bird derives its name, gleaming in the sunlight 

 above the vivid green of the bracken fern. I stayed and 

 watched this fascinating performance for some minutes, when 

 all at once something snapped, or else the Pilot-bird, Pycnoptilus 

 floccostis, uttered his warning note, for the bird stopped instantly, 

 dropped his tail, and silently sped away far into the bush. 

 I advanced cautiously, and was investigating the freshly- 

 trodden mound, when something moved from under a fallen 

 tree-trunk, and a young Lyre-bird came out — so near that I 

 could almost have touched him. He looked at me and I at 

 him, and, apparently concluding that I was harmless, he 

 continued, to my intense delight, to scratch and pick, and now 

 and again to raise his head and emit his clear, piercing, 

 metallic-sounding note. It was interesting to watch how his 

 throat swelled up as he did so. It is earnestly to be hoped 

 that the rangers will take special care to confiscate, as they 

 have the right to do, all guns or pea rifles carried in this 

 reserve ; otherwise it is to be feared that these glories of the 

 bush, who are evidently becoming tamer and more trustful of 

 man than they used to be, will, for this very reason, fall victims 

 to so-called sportsmen. — A. E. Keep. 10th January, iqiq. 



