40 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS 



Suddenly our guide lifted his hand for silence. 

 His quick ears had caught the male bird's notes. 

 Presently we, too, heard them, and hope surged high. 

 It was justified. Out into the open, twenty feet from 

 where we sat, strutted the bird, its splendid tail dis- 

 played. In full view, it stopped for a minute, as if 

 suspicious, but continued its parade, and made a 

 complete circle of the camping spot. Neither fire 

 nor smoke alarmed it. After receiving a welcome 

 from its mate, the male bird disappeared. 



Later in the day we explored the scrub in other 

 directions, not without success. Several old nests 

 of Lyre-Birds were discovered, and also a dancing 

 mound on a hill slope. While at its mound we heard, 

 far away, the male bird calling. We advanced 

 cautiously, and, screened by the dense undergrowth, 

 were able to reach a hiding place fairly close to the 

 bird. It proved to be a master minstrel. Besides 

 its own varied notes, it had a wonderful repertoire, 

 and favoured us with excellent renderings of songs 

 and calls of over a dozen species of birds, imitated 

 the barking of a cattle dog, followed by the whistle 

 of its master, and became silent. But only for a 

 minute. Though the audience had not dared to de- 

 mand an encore, the whole programme was repeated. 

 We were singularly fortunate, having both seen and 

 heard the Lyre-Bird at its best. 



It was in the Lyre-Birds' haunt that we found a 

 playground of the Satin Bower-Bird [Ptilonorhynchus 

 holosericeus] , one of the most remarkable examples 

 of bird architecture known to naturalists. The 

 bower stood in the centre of a little glade, with ferns 

 and shrubs forming a natural fence. Evidently the 

 bower had been finished recently, for the collection of 

 bright objects scattered around was small. There 

 were a few bleached bones, some land shells, several 

 blue feathers (Parrots'), bits of blue grass, and about 

 a score of flowers, chiefly violets. To gather the 



