286 Birds. 



turbance : immediate advantage must be taken of this 

 circumstance, or the next moment it may be half-way 

 down the gully. So totally different is the shooting of 

 this bird to anything practised in Europe, that the most 

 expert shot would have but little chance, until well 

 experienced in the peculiar nature of the country, and 

 the habits of the bird. The Menura seldom, if ever, 

 attempts to escape by flying ; it easily eludes pursuit by 

 its extraordinary power of running. None are so efficient 

 in obtaining specimens as the naked black, whose noise- 

 less and gliding steps enable him to steal upon it unheard 

 and unperceived, and with the gun in his hand, he rarely 

 allows it to escape, and in many instances he will oven 

 kill it with his own weapons. 



" The Lyre-bird is of a wandering disposition, and 

 although it probably keeps to the same brush, it is con- 

 stantly engaged in traversing it from one end to the 

 other, from mountain-top to the bottom of the gullies, 

 whose steep and rugged sides present no obstacle to its 

 long legs and powerful muscular thighs : it is also capable 

 of performing extraordinary leaps ; and I have heard it 

 stated, that it will spring ten feet perpendicularly from 

 the ground. It appears to be of solitary habits, as I 

 have never seen more than a pair together, and these 

 only in a single instance ; they were both males, and 

 were chasing each other round and round with extreme 

 rapidity, apparently in play, pausing every now and 

 then to utter their loud shrill calls ; while thus em- 

 ployed they carried the tail horizontally, as they always 

 do when running quickly through the bush, that being 

 the only position in which this great organ could be 

 conveniently borne at such times. Among its many 

 curious habits, the only one at all approaching to those 

 of the Gallinaccea, is that of forming small round hillocks, 

 which are constantly visited during the day, and upon 

 which the male is constantly trampling, at the same 

 time erecting and spreading out his tail in the most 

 graceful manner, and uttering his various cries, some- 

 times pouring forth his natural notes, at others mock- 

 ing those of other birds, and even the howling of the 

 native dog, or - dingo. The early morning and the- 



