Vol. IX. 

 1909 



1 Prom Magazines, &c. zj.^ 



Mr. L. Harrison, enrolled a large number of members. A 

 committee, comprising Mesdames L. Harrison and Kearney, Dr. 

 Mary Booth, and Messr.s. F. E. Winchcombe, F. Farnell, H. C. L. 

 Anderson, A. S. Le Souef, W. W. Froggatt, C. F. Lindeman, H. 

 E. Finckh, C. Hedley, C. Thackeray, D. G. Stead, and Count 

 Morner, was appointed to draft rules and constitution. Mr. H. 

 C. L. Anderson announced that it was the intention of the 

 Agricultural Department to issue a bulletin of 150 insectivorous 

 birds, and to figure the birds in colours. The announcement 

 was received with applause. Substantial promises of financial 

 and other support were received by the hon. secretary. — Sydney 

 Morning Herald, 20/5/09. 



H: « 4: 



Extinction of the Lyre-Bird. — The following is an 

 extract from a letter by Mr. S. W. Jackson which appeared in 

 TJie Sydney Morning Herald, 3/6/09 : — " A few years back an 

 instance came under my notice in which over 400 of our hand- 

 some and nationally emblematic Lyre-Birds {Mennra superba) 

 were wiped out of one district in a single season in order to 

 supply globe-trotting curio-hunters with the unique tail feathers. 

 This illustrates the need for the amendment of the Birds Protec- 

 tion Act. If anyone be caught shooting a Lyre-Bird, it is true 

 that he can be prosecuted and fined ; but the tails themselves 

 (absolute evidence of a broken law) are exposed for sale every- 

 where. It must be remembered, first, that it is only the male 

 bird which carries the beautiful tail plumage, which so often costs 

 him his life ; and, secondly, that the female rarely (if ever) 

 lays more than one o.^^ each season. Between, therefore, the 

 destruction of the males and the limited breeding of the females, 

 the species is likely to become extinct. Until the law punishes 

 slayer and vendor alike there is no hope for a protection that 

 really protects. "Whilst engaged in bird-life research in Queens- 

 land last year I brought this matter under the notice of the 

 Premier as affecting the Albert Lyre-Bird (the northern variety, 

 generally confined to the south-eastern part of Queensland and 

 the Richmond River and Tweed River districts of New South 

 Wales). I have since then heard that steps are to be taken to 

 prevent the total extinction not only of this dainty forest beauty, 

 but of others of perhaps equal interest. And this is not before 

 it was needed, for the work of destruction goes on apace. It is 

 not long ago that in a locality in the north-east of New South 

 Wales a party of vandals organized a sort of Lyre-Bird 'drive ;' 

 surrounding a patch of scrub in which the birds were common, 

 and setting fire to it, they shot down the unfortunate birds as 

 they struggled through one pitiless ring of fire only to meet 

 their death in another. Finally the tails were cut off and the 

 bodies left to rot, much as the victims of Red Indian warfare are 

 scalped and abandoned." 



