THE BIKD OF TAKADISE. 563 



curved in the form of a Grecian lyre, and between both, other 

 feathers, whose widely distanced silken barbs envelope and 

 surmount them with a light and airy gauze. No painter 

 could possibly have imagined anything to equal this masterpiece 

 of nature, which its shy possessor conceals in the wild bushes of 

 Australia. 



' Of all the birds I have ever met with,' says Mr. Grould, 

 'the Menura is by far the most difficult to procure. While 

 among the bushes, on the coast or on the sides of the mountains 

 in the interior, I have been surrounded by those birds pouring 

 forth their loud and liquid calls for days together, without being 

 able to get a sight of them, and it was only by the most 

 determined perseverance and extreme caution that I was enabled 

 to effect the desired object.' 



The Lyre-bird is constantly engaged in traversing the bush 

 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. When running quickly through 

 the bush, it carries the tail horizontally, that being the only 

 position in which it could be borne at such times. Besides its 

 loud, full cry, which may be heard at a great distance, it has an 

 inward and varied song, the lower notes of which can only be 

 heard when you have stealthily approached to within a few 

 yards of the bird when it is singing. Its habits appear to be 

 solitary, seldom more than a pair being seen together. It 

 constructs a large nest, formed on the outside of sticks and 

 twigs, like that of a magpie, and lined with the inner bark of 

 trees and fibrous roots. 



In the neighbouring regions of Papua or New Gruinea, and 

 the small isles in their immediate vicinity, extending only a 

 few degrees on each side of the Equator, we find the seat of the 

 wondrous Birds of Paradise, thus named from that peculiar 

 union of splendour and elegance which seems to render them 

 more worthy of the gardens of Eden than of a terrestrial home. 



The great Bird of Paradise (P. apoda) may justly be said to 

 surpass in beauty the whole of the feathered creation. The 

 throat is of the brightest emerald, and the canary-coloured 

 neck blends gradually into the fine chocolate of the other, parts 

 of the body. From under the short chestnut-coloured wings 

 project the long delicate and gold-coloured feathers whose 



