234 



MENISPERMUM-MENURA. 



comprising; the genera ftfalaehius, Aplocnemus, and 

 Dasytes, which are British, and Lygia, Melyris, and Pe- 

 iecophorus, which are exotic ; the typical genera Me- 

 lyris, Fahricius, having the antennae short and gradually 

 enlarged to the tip, and being composed of sev- ral 

 African speties, the type being M. viridis, a common 

 species inhabiting the Cape of Good Hope. 



MEMBRAtDIS (Fabricins). A curious genus of 

 exotic horncvpterons insects,belonjr5ng to the h'rst section 

 of the family CercojtidcE, and having the anterior tibiae 

 dilated, the scutellum not developed, the body being 

 covered above by the large semicircular prothorax, 

 which is elevated like the top of a helmet, and is not 

 thicker than a card : there are numerous species, all 

 of them inhabiting South America. 



MEMECLYON ( Linnaeus). A genus of Indian 

 trees, one of which bears edible fruit. They belong 

 to the class Octandria, and to the natural order 

 Metastomacece. They grow readily in our stoves, 

 and may be propagated by cuttings. These plants 

 toive Ineen separated from Melastomacece by M. De 

 Candolle, and united with Mouriria and Petaloma 

 to form a new but doubtful order called MemecylecE. 

 ' MEN ISl'ERMUM (Linnaeus). Ae-enusof climbing 

 plants, chiefly natives of America. They give a title 

 to a natural order, viz. : 



MENISPERMACE.E, which contains eight 

 genera and and twenty-nine species, all twiners or 

 climbers with small inconspicuous flowers. Dr. 

 Lindley says "they are extremely dissimilar in habit 

 from the orders placed near them, and occupy their 

 present station entirely on account of certain minute 

 but important characters in their fructification. With 

 the exception of Sclrizandra coccinea, none of them 

 are worth cultivating as ornamental plants." The 

 famous Columba root, so much esteemed for its 

 intense bitterness, is the produce of the Cocculus pal- 

 matus. The poisonous drug called Cocculus indicus 

 in the shops is the seed of a species of Cocculus, pro- 

 bably tuberosus. Several Brazilian species of Coc- 

 culus and Cissampelos, are said to possess powerful 

 febrifugal properties. The genera comprised in this 

 order are Cocculus, Cosinium, Tiliacora, Wendlandia, 

 Cissampelos, Menispermum, and Abuta ; these com- 

 pose the first tribe of the order ; the second tribe 

 containing only Schizandra. 



MENTHA (Linnaeus). A genus of useful and 

 highly ornamental herbs, belonging to Labiate. The 

 M. viridis, common mint, is one of our most useful 

 culinary herbs, and in constant requisition by the cook. 

 . MENURA Lyre-tail. A very remarkable spe- 

 cies of bird, a native of New Holland, found only in 

 that country, and being the only one of the genus and 

 even the family, as well as only a single species. It 

 belongs, in Cuvier's arrangement, to the dentirostral 

 family of the great order Passeres, with which it agrees 

 in the bill being notched, and also in the general form 

 of the legs and feet. But in its air and gait there are 

 some resemblances to the poultry family, though those 

 resemblances are rather slight. They consist in the 

 prevailing tint of the plumage, the short and rounded 

 wing*!, and the produced feathers in the tail of the 

 male bird. Very little analogy, however, can be 

 founded upon either of those resemblances, and there- 

 fore the bird, as we have said, stands alone. 



The characters are : The bill broader than high at 

 the base, and triangular in the section there, like the 

 4)ills of the thrushes. For the greater part of its 

 -length the bill is straight, but the point of the upper 



mandible is hooked, and furnished with a notch on 

 each side. There is a distinct rid^e along the culmen 

 of the bill ; and the nostrils are placed in the middle 

 of the bill, in prolonged grooves, very lare, oval, and 

 partially covered with membrane, which is beset with 

 feathers as in the bills of the jays. The feet are 

 slender, and the tarsus twice as long as the middle 

 toe. The three front toes are of equal length, the in- 

 ternal one free, but the external joined to the middle 

 as far as the first articulation. The claws are nearly 

 as long as the toes, convex on the upper sides, and 

 blunt. The wings are heavy, rounded and concave, 

 the first five quills increasing regularly in length from 

 the first ; and the four next them being equal in 

 length, and the longest in the wing. The tail has 

 very long feathers, and in the male those feathers' 

 have a peculiar form, which we shall notice after- 

 wards. 



In some respects this is the most beautiful bird of 

 New Holland ; and in that country, as well as every- 

 where else, it stands alone, without there being any 

 genus with which it has any considerable affinity. The 

 colonists, according to the habit which most colonists 

 have of calling new birds of the colony after old birds 

 of the mother country, have given this bird the name 

 of the wood pheasant, and sometimes of the lyre 

 pheasant, on account of ihe peculiar form of the tail. 

 These terms are misapplications, however, and ought 

 to be discarded ; and our knowledge of the bird must 

 rest wholly on the description of itself, without any 

 assistance from analogy. 



When the weight, concavity, and roundness of its 

 wings are considered, we need hardly mention that 

 this is a bird which can neither feed upon the wing, 

 nor make Ions: flights, though its wings are, like those 

 of the GallirMce, remarkably well adapted for rapid 

 ascents and descents. Accordingly, it is like these in 

 their native localities, a bird of the woods, and passes 

 much of its time in trees or bushes, though it is also 

 found upon the ground, and feeds principally there. 

 Its feeding time is early in the morning, and the male 

 struts about with something of the air of a dunghill 

 cock, though we believe he is monogamous, and no 

 battles of gallantry occur. It is found chiefly in places 

 rather upland, where the ground is dry and covered 

 with trees or brushwood ; and its short round wings 

 adapt it well for moving about in such places. 



As we said, there is only a single species, Menura 

 lyrata, which is about the size of a pheasant, though 

 not so elegantly formed. It is generally speuking of 

 a greyish brown colour, with the throat, and the upper 

 coverts and quills of the wings, reddish brown. None 

 of the colours are bright, neither do they form any 

 very striking contrasts ; but, notwithstanding, their ge- 

 neral appearance is very sinking. It is the tail of the 

 male bird, however, wiiich forms at once the most 

 striking external character, and the greatest beauty of 

 the bird. The tail consists of sixteen feathers, twelve 

 of which, six on each side, have the shafts exceed- 

 ingly slender, and very few fibres instead of webs ; but 

 these fibres are long. The two feathers in the middle 

 have their external webs closely set and straight ; and 

 the inner webs almost entirely wanting. The two 

 external feathers are bent like the branches of a ryre ; 

 and when the tail of the animal stands erect, it bears 

 a slight resemblance to that instrument, these feathers 

 resembling the frame of a lyre, while the twelve slen- 

 der ones resemble the strings. It is from this form of 

 the tail that the bird has received its name, which rs 



