12 O'DoNOGHUE, Notes 0)1 Victorian Lyre-liird. [vor'xxxi 



engaged the attention ol bird-observers some time ago in 

 " Nature Notes," edited by Donald Macdonald, in the Ar^us. 

 In many cases the views and conclusions embodied in the article 

 may be erroneous, though based on observed facts. If, 

 however, they serve to stimulate closer observation of the 

 hal)its of the bird under review, and such investigation leads 

 up to the discovery of one or more interesting facts respecting 

 it that may have hitherto escaped notice, the purpose of the 

 })aper and the aims of the Club will be alike achieved. 



The shyness of the Lyre-bird has now become as j^roverbial 

 as the cunning of the fox, and one is at times entertained by 

 the efforts of some well-meaning individual to advance a 

 reasonable supposition for the acquirement by the bird of this 

 trait, in surroundings wild in the extreme, but devoid to all 

 intents of any predatory animal whose attacks it might 

 apprehend. Favoming as it does the almost inaccessible fern- 

 gullies of the heavily-timliered ranges of Ciijipsland, the bird 

 is more often heard than seen, and jjossibly from this circum- 

 stance it has been credited with the possession of a faculty 

 which is neither essential for its protection nor necessary for 

 the procuration of its means of subsistence. 



The bird, so far as my observations are concerned, is not so 

 excessively shy as is generally supposed. In common with 

 most wild creatures, it is possessed of an instinctive dread of 

 man, but not to such an extent as to warrant the contention 

 that to effect its destruction the sjiortsman must leave his 

 watch behind during his mission and endeavour to still the 

 beating of his heart, lest the ticking of the former and the 

 throbbing of the latter reach the acute-eared bird. In North 

 Gip])sland, when desirous of stalking a cock bird. I found that, 

 by imitating the call of the Wonga Pigeon. I had absolutely 

 no difficulty in approaching within fatal range without the 

 exercise of any great degree of caution. 



I can never recall without feelings of amusement the many 

 encounters I had w^ith a pair of Lyre-birds on the eastern slope 

 of a small valley between two narrow s]-)urs that extended in 

 a more or less southerly direction froni a main axis of elevation. 

 On the margin of a diminutive glade, amid a dense investment 

 of vegetation in which the Blanketwood, Scuecio Bedfordi, pre- 

 dominated, the female had constructed her nest in a hollow 

 stump about six feet from the ground. From her coign of 

 vantage she commanded an excellent view of the crest of the 

 tip of an old inclining shaft and of the dancing mound whereon 

 her ]-)artncr exercised his powers of mimicry and complicated 

 movement, and postured and flaunted his tail feathers for her 

 edification as well as for his own delectation. The shaft had 

 been sunk with the dip of the Silurian strata on what had 



