144 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
out of tree-tops all over the place and racing to a common goal 
was delightful, to say the least. 
Honey-eaters, like most nectar-feeding birds, are sprightly and 
intelligent creatures. It seems that whereas the small seed-eating 
birds, so numerously dotted over the globe, find their food easily 
and therefore require very little in the way of intellect, the nectar- 
feeders have to search for their food and are often compelled to 
shift from place to place wherever suitable trees and shrubs happen 
to be flowering. 
The honey-eaters are less specialized in this respect than nectar- 
feeders, such as some of the sunbirds and humming-birds, for 
they consume a considerable proportion of insects as well as berries. 
Not least enjoyable of my escorted tours was a trip to the Dan- 
denong Hills to the east of Melbourne. In the wooded valleys deep 
with bracken and tree-ferns were many birds of interest, but my 
main idea was to hear a Lyre-bird. This, like the koala, is a crea- 
ture of which Australians are justly proud. 
The male in display has all the splendor of a bird-of-paradise, 
though the hen, like the female pheasant or peahen, looks dull by 
comparison with its mate. The beauty of the male lyre-bird is in its 
tail, but it is a shy bird and difficult to see in its secluded haunts. 
In spite of this he makes his presence felt by his almost unparal- 
leled powers of mimicry—pouring out the call-notes of all the 
forest-dwelling birds of his locality, besides mechanical noises and 
the barking of dogs. He has also a wide range of liquid call-notes 
of his own. One of the most remarkable things about the bird is 
the strength of its legs and feet. It can leap almost vertically over 
eight feet without using its wings, and when scratching will turn 
up amazingly large pieces of rotting timber by grasping them with 
both feet and giving a tremendous jerk backwards. 
On my visit to these hills I was delighted to hear a male going 
through his repertoire, though time was too short to hope to see 
one. I had to be content with seeing a female in captivity, which, 
however, was interesting if only to watch her scratching. Some- 
times when using one leg for this purpose she would cross it over 
the other and continue to scratch. 
Even though armed with letters from the London Zoo I saw that 
it was going to be exceedingly difficult to get anything out of Vic- 
