NOTES ON THE VICTORIA LYRE BIRD. 365 



DESTINY or THE LYRE BIRD. 



But the daj'S of the lyre bird are numbered unless it develops the 

 habit of nesting in trees or spots inaccessible" to its far more dan- 

 gerous enemy, an introduced one, the European fox. Scattered 

 feathers and occasional feet are frequently met with in some parts of 

 the country and attest the depredations of the fox, which has now 

 spread over nearly the whole, if not the whole, of the State, and has 

 moreover, develo])ed the faculty of ascending slightly leaning trees. 



As regards vSouth Gippsland the h're bird is doomed to extinction, 

 and that by the agency of man. The mass of hilly country between 

 the valleys of the Latrobe on the north; the Tarago, Lang Lang, and 

 the Bass on the west; the Powlett and Tarwin and the narrow strip 

 between Foster and Merriman Creek on the south and southeast, was 

 a large tract, covered with an extremely dense vegetation and in a 

 continuously moist or wet state before settlement took place. It was 

 united to the main mass of the mountain system of eastern Victoria 

 by a narrow elevated tract of volcanic and similarly timbered country 

 between Warragul and Longwarry. In every gully and on eveiy 

 spur the lovely notes of the lyre bird could be heard, and evidence 

 of its occupation could be seen on every hand. Thousands of these 

 birds must have sported about this country, making the otherwise 

 rather silent forest a huge natural concert hall. Now, alas, the 

 march of settlement, wdth its breechloaders, forest spoliation, and 

 bush fires, has brought about a sad change from a naturalist's point 

 of view\ With the disappearance of the scrub goes the lyre bird, 

 and as the country gets cleared from various sides, so patches only of 

 scrubby country are left. These become the temporary home of such 

 of the outcasts as have escaped the gun, the clearing, and the fire, till 

 they, in their turn, become felled and burnt, when the lyre birds dis- 

 appear. 



NEST, EGG, AND YOUNG. 



During my geological survey of the Victorian coal-fields area in 

 South Gippsland in the year 1900 I was camped on the Foster River 

 near Jumbunna, on the edge of a belt of natural forest of an ex- 

 tremely dense character. This scrub was the home of scores of lyre 

 birds, whose lovely notes could be heard all through the day. 



Several nests of these birds were found, and as many observations 

 made concerning the birds and their habits as time and opportunity 

 permitted. One nest Avas situated in the side of one of the short, 

 deep channels (" blind creeks ") that drained the swampy portion of 

 the river flat. As is customary in South Gippsland, the timber had 



"Reference to Plate II will show that lyre birds occasionally build in trees. — 

 Eds. 



