i6 O'DoNOGHUE, Notes on Victorian Lyre-bird, [vou'x? 



Nat. 

 XXI. 



minate. and ashy-brown in colour. Tlif wing feathers, 

 protruding in sheaths hke a camel-hair paint brush, closely 

 resembled hair yi texture, but in any other respects, except 

 the voice, they approximated more to the characteristic features 

 of the domestic than to the wild stock. 



I\Ir. ^lilligan began a series of experiments with these hybrids, 

 which l)red irecly inter se, and had successfully reared two 

 generations when he broke u}) his home and proceeded to 

 Western Australia. At this time the experiments of the 

 Austrian monk, (^regor Mendel, and the statement of the law 

 he had deduced from his results and published in 1865, was 

 completely forgotten by the scientific world. It remained so 

 till the beginning of the jjresent century, when it was lirought 

 prominently before the public by Bateson, the Cambridge 

 naturalist. lndei)endent, then, of Mendel's discovery, Mr. 

 Milligan was experimenting with the hybrids on similar lines, 

 and was within measurable distance of discovering the ai)pHca- 

 tion of the Mendelian i)rincij)les of crossing when circumstances 

 arose that necessitated a discontinuance of his investigations 

 at a period when he expected the next generation to produce 

 the tail and other characteristics of the Lyre-bird. One cannot 

 hel}! regretting that these experiments in Mendel's principles 

 of breecling had such an indefinite ending. 



It has been asserted that the Lyre-bird has a predilection 

 for hazel scrul) by reason of the attraction this particular 

 species of \egetation has for certain insects, whose larva;, 

 sheltering as they do among the roots of the hazel, are claimed 

 to be the bird's chief, if not sole, source of subsistence. The 

 l)ird, I am quite satisfied, is eminently cosmopolitan regarding 

 the nature of the vegetation it frequents. I have seen them 

 in scores amid golden wattle, ferns, musk, cassinia, blanket- 

 wood, &c. A loose \ogctable mould, rejilete with the larva; 

 of insects, particularly the Land Slirimji, Talilrus sylvaticits, is 

 their quest by day. Wherever tliis comjiost is foimd, be it 

 under any kind of vegetation, tlierc you will lind the Lyre- 

 bird, or unmistakable evidence of its energy in large areas of 

 scarified ground, for, whilst the mixture affords every facility 

 for the full oj^eration of the powerful claws with which the bird 

 has been pro\ided by natural selection, it is eminently adaj^ted 

 for the propagation of insect life. 



It appeared to me that the birds in the Crooked River district 

 congregated more in the valleys trending south from an axis 

 of elevation than in those trending north. I rejieatedly 

 remarked the i)aucity of birds in ajiparently favourable valleys 

 flanking spurs having a northerly extension. This may be 

 due to the sun's rays striking with greater jiower on a northern 

 than on a southern slope, thereby rendering the former, l)y 



