NOTES ON THE VICTORIA LYRE BIRD (MENURA 

 VICTORLE).« 



By A. E. KiTSON, F. G. S.. .Mi'Ilxniriie. 



DISTRIBUTION AND DISPERSION OF THE LYRE lilUD. 



The Victoria lyre birds are restricted to the densely timbered, 

 moist, hilly, and mountainous parts of eastern Victoria, for they must 

 have abundance of moisture, and food consisting of insects, grubs, 

 worms, etc. The Melbourne to Sydney railway may be taken as the 

 approximate western limit of these birds. They have not been found 

 to the west of that line, nor even nearly up to it in many parts. The 

 reason aj^ixirently is that no densely timbered and scrubby humid 

 ranges, with permanent creeks in them, occur to the west of this line 

 on the northern side of the main divide, for neither Futter's Range 

 nor the Mokoan Range near Benalla possesses these characteristics. 

 The main divide itself, where the railway crosses it at Kilmore Junc- 

 tion, at an altitude of 1,145 feet, is rather low, and is not — apparently 

 never Avas — densely scrubbed. Again, although eminently suitable 

 country for these birds is comprised by the Macedon Ranges and 

 those in the Blackwood district, near and on the main divide, also by 

 the Otway Ranges, no lyre birds arc found there. In the case of the 

 last, the reason is undoubtedly its isolation. It is comjiletely cut off 

 from the other hilly and mountainous districts of Victoria hy the 

 great volcanic plains of the western district, which would form an 

 effectual barrier to the dispersion of the lyre bird southward, even if 

 it were present on the main divide to the north. The bird is so '^hy 

 that, unless al)undant cover be quite close at hand, it will not, under 

 ordinary circumstances, venture into the open forest country, much 

 less cross wide tracts devoid of arboreal vegetation. It is not so obvi- 

 ous why the lyre bird is not present in the thickly limbered and 

 scrubby country of the Macedon Ranges, but apparently this also is 

 due to its comparative isolation. On the east it is separated by a wide 

 dissected volcanic plain, forming a natural barrier. The only prac- 

 ticable bridge of dispersion exists in the main divide itself, which 

 from Wandong on the railway takes a general northwesterly course 



o Reprinted by permission, with the author's corrections, from The Emu, Mel- 

 bourne, Viftoriii, Vol. V, j>art 2, Ootoljer, 1005. 



363 



