NOTES ON THP: VICTORIA LYRE BIRD. 871 



birds arc rendered, the glidin*>; of one bird's notes into those of an- 

 other, and the rendering of two or more simultaneously are nothing 

 short of marvelous. The male bird is much the better and more 

 powerful whistler, but tlic female is practically as good a mimic. I 

 have no doubt that the lyre bird is a mocking bird, for, even supposing 

 it to owe to heredity its faculty for Mnitating the birds of the forest, 

 as has been suggested, it can have acquired the art of imitating 

 sounds of human origin only since the settlement of the country in 

 which it is found. 



LYRE BIRDS IN C'APITIVITY. 



It is generally supposed that these birds can not be reared and kept 

 in captivity. Several attempts have, I believe, been made in the 

 Zoological Gardens, Melbourne, but the birds have always died in a 

 short time. There are several instances known, however, in which 

 such attem^^ts have been successful. The most notable one is that of 

 11 resident of the Woods Point district (Upper Goulburn), who, so 

 Mr. O. A. L. Whitelaw tells me, reared several of these birds, which 

 fed with the fowls and Avere quite tame. The owner decided u|)on 

 l^roceeding to America to exhibit the birds as one of the curiosities of 

 Australia, but before matters had been arranged all of them w^ere 

 poisoned, it w-as supposed, by some malicious person." 



Other instances have been cited of a lyre bird having been reared 

 and kept for lengthened or brief periods of time ^ in the Drouin, 



a Writing under "Nature notes" in The Argus of July 28, 1905, Mr. Donald 

 Macdonald Incidentally substantiates this fact. A correspondent, Mr. J. C. 

 Mahan, of Woods Point, in giving some jjarticulars about saving and keeping 

 lyre birds in captivity, states : " When I found a nest I left the chicken for thirty 

 days after it was hatched ; then snared the old bird, and carried them with the 

 nest to a large wire-netted aviary. The chicken was thus fed naturally by the 

 mother. On one occasion I had a chicken in the nest for forty-two days. A 

 bird tliat had been in my aviary for three or four years developed only three of 

 the ' fronded feathers.' In my opinion the male bird does not reach its full 

 plumage for eight years. I have never found more than 24 of the brown bars on 

 a mature bird. It was a tedious and difficult task to accustom my birds to 

 artificial food, and I lost thirteen before succeeding. The proof that I got the 

 right system in the end was shown in the fact that after my birds had been 

 maliciously poisoned they were opened and found to be lined with healthy fat, 

 as the saying is. The late :\Ir. A. C. Le Souef offered me £40 for the collection, 

 and later .Tamrach's agent offered £115 a pair for three domesticated iiairs, 

 to be delivered in London. I was going to accept this offer, when all my birds 

 were poisoned; then I lost heart and gave it up. If the national iiark is ever 

 established some lyre birds should be turned down there. With the right con- 

 ditions they would breed in captivity. The experience of my own aviary 

 satisfied me as to that." — Eds. 



''Mr. F. r. Godfrey in The Enui (Vol V., j). :V.]) mentions Mr. S. McNeilly, of 

 Drouin, having had a male lyre bird in a state of domestication for twenty 

 years. A photograph of this particular l>ird is herewith given. (See Plate 

 \\.)—E(Is. 



