LYON-KING-AT-ARMS LYRE-BIRD. 



619 



the western shore of Melville Peninsula with the 

 important discoveries of capt. Franklin ; and was 

 accompanied as far as the coast of Labrador by the 

 Snap surveying vessel, which had been ordered to 

 carry out a spare bower-anchor and part of her 

 stores. After undergoing many hardships in the 

 course of an exploratory voyage, the Griper re- 

 turned to England in November of the same year. 

 Capt. Lyon published a narrative of his voyage, 

 with a reduced chart of his route, and an appendix, 

 containing magnetic and botanical observations. 

 In June 1825, the honorary degree of D. C. L. 

 was conferred upon him by the university of 

 Oxford ; and, on the 5th of Sept. following, he 

 married Lucy Louisa, the younger daughter of 

 lord Edward Fitzgerald. Not long after, he went 

 to Mexico, as one of the commissioners of the 

 Real del Monte mining company. Returning 

 home, by way of New York, in the Panthea packet, 

 bound to Liverpol, he was wrecked in a gale at 

 Holyhead, Jan. 14, 1827, and lost every thing 

 belonging to him, including his journal, plans of 

 the mines, &c. To add to his mortification, he 

 beard, upon landing, of the death of his wife, 

 which had taken place about four months before. 



Captain Lyon afterwards returned to South 

 America on mining business, which he prosecuted 

 with his wonted intelligence ; and the specimens 

 of South American minerals which he forwarded 

 to this country are evidences of his taste. At 

 length his sight began to fail him to an alarming 

 degree, insomuch that he determined to revisit 

 England for advice. He accordingly embarked 

 for that purpose, but died, on board his Majesty's 

 packet the Emulous, on her passage from Buenos 

 Ayres, Oct. 8th, 1832, at the age of thirty-seven ; 

 thus prematurely concluding a life of extraordinary 

 adventure, attended by extraordinary misfortunes. 



LYON-KING-AT-ARMS ; an officer of great 

 antiquity in Scotland, so called from the armorial 

 bearing of the Scottish kings, the lion rampant. 

 The Lord Lyon's rank is superior to that of any 

 other king of arms, as he holds his office immedi- 

 ately from the sovereign, by commission under the 

 great seal. Formerly, one of his duties was to 

 carry public messages to foreign states. The 

 officers serving under him are heralds, pursuivants, 

 and messengers. They are all created by him, 

 and amenable to his jurisdiction. He is empowered 

 to inspect the arms and ensigns-armorial of all the 

 noblemen and gentlemen in the kingdom, and to 

 give proper arms to deserving persons; to matri- 

 culate such arms, and to fine those who use arms 

 which are not matriculated in 100 Scots, with 

 the forfeiture of the goods and furniture on which 

 the arms are represented. The court of session 

 has the power of reviewing the decision of the 

 Lyon Court as to the matriculation of arms, but a 

 reduction of a matriculation of arms is incompetent 

 at the instance of a party who does not claim right 

 to the arms in question. The regalia of this 

 officer are very sumptuous, and are worn on solemn 

 occasions. Before the revolution, on his admission 

 to office, he was solemnly crowned by the sove- 

 reign or his commissioner, in presence of the no- 

 bility, &c. The Scottish poet. Sir David Lindsay 

 of the Mount, was lord-lyon-king-at-arms. 



LYRE-BIRD, OR MENURA, a beautiful bird 

 found in Australia, and placed by some naturalists 

 among the gallenaceous order of birds ; by others, 

 among the passerine. It equals a common pheasant 

 in size, but its limbs are longer in proportion, and 



its feet much larger; the toes are armed with large 

 arched blunt claws; the hind toe is as long as are 

 the fore toes (the length of these being nearly 

 equal), but its claw is larger than that of any of 

 the others ; the scales of the tarsi and toes are 

 large bold plates, and their colour is glossy black ; 

 the head is small, the beak, as Cuvier has described 

 it, is triangular at the base, pointed and compressed 

 at the tip; in the male the feathers of the head are 

 elongated into a crest; the wings are short, concave, 

 and rounded, and the quill feathers are lax and 

 feeble ; the general plumage is full, deep, soft, and 

 downy. The tail is modified into a beautiful long 

 plume-like ornament, representing, when erect and 

 expanded, the figure of a lyre, whence the name 

 of lyre-bird. This ornamental tail is, however, 

 confined to the male. In the female the tail is 

 long and graduated, and the feathers are perfectly 

 webbed on both sides of the shaft, although their 

 texture is soft and flowing. In the male the tail 

 consists of sixteen feathers, of these the outer 

 one on each side is broadly but loosely webbed 

 within, its outer web being narrow; as it 

 proceeds it curves outwards, bends in, and again 

 turns boldly outwards and downwards, both to- 

 gether resembling the framework of an ancient 

 lyre, of which the intermediate feathers are the 

 strings ; these feathers, except the two central, 

 which are truly but narrowly webbed on the outer 

 side, consist each of a slender shaft, with long 

 filamentous bubules, at a distance from each other, 

 and springing out alternately. The appearance of 

 these feathers, the length of which is about two 

 feet, is peculiarly graceful ; their colour is amber 

 brown, but the two outer tail-feathers are gray 

 tipped with black, edged with rufous, and trans- 

 versely marked on the inner web with transparent, 

 triangular bars. The general plumage of the 

 menura is amber brown above, tinged with olive, 

 and merging into rufous on the wings, and also on 

 the throat. The under parts are ashy gray. With 

 respect to the habits of the lyre-bird much yet 

 remains to be known. Shaw, in the account he 

 collected, observes that its powers of song are 

 very great : " At the early part of the morning it 

 begins to sing, having a very fine natural note ; 

 and gradually ascending some rocky eminence, 

 scratches up the ground in the manner of some of 

 the pheasant tribe, elevating its tail, and at inter- 

 vals imitating the notes of every other bird within 

 hearing; and having continued this exercise for 

 about two hours, again descends into the valleys 

 or lower grounds." 



It is in the hilly districts of Australia that the 

 menura is to be found, and its manners are shy 

 and recluse; it is almost exclusively terrestrial, 

 seldom taking wing, and when forced to do so fly- 

 ing with labour and difficulty. Dr Latham 

 remarks, " It is said that it will frequently imitate 

 the notes of other birds so as to deceive most 

 people ;" and we may here add that the musical 

 powers of this bird, which we have been inclined 

 to doubt, have been confirmed to us by the testi- 

 mony of a gentleman who, during his residence in 

 Australia, had many opportunities of gaining in- 

 formation on the subject, and he assured us that 

 not only were its own notes rich and melodious, 

 but that it imitated those of other birds with sur- 

 prising tact and execution. Mr George Bennett, 

 however, who notices the menura, in his " Wan- 

 derings in New South Wales," does not allude to 

 this circumstance, one of considerable importance; 



