THE MENUEA 377 



" Of all the birds I have ever met with," says Mr. Gould, 

 " the menura is by far the most difficult to procure. While 

 among the brushes, on the coast or on 

 the sides of the mountains in the in- 

 terior, 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 brush 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 brush, 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 heai'd 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 Guinea, 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 Paradiseidae, distinguished in most species by 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 

 I beautiful and graceful tufts are equally valued by the princes 



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