MIMICRY OF THE LYRE-BIRD 15 



found the fact recorded that it also reproduces many other 

 than bird sounds, the two most extraordinary of which are 

 perhaps a hissing noise similar to that uttered by an 

 alarmed snake, and a sharp knocking sound like that 

 produced by striking a tree-trunk with a stick. All these 

 sounds are uttered apparently for the bird's own amuse- 

 ment. The song is rather loud, but sweet and flute-like in 

 tone, and quite unlike that of any other bird. It is piped 

 forth while the bird is perched on a branch, or dry stick, 

 close to the ground, and sometimes when it is on the 

 lowest bough of a tree not more than five or six feet from 

 the ground. The sounds of imitation include the calls and 

 cries of every creature that is found in the localities which 

 the lyre-bird inhabits, including those of such noisy birds 

 as the eagle, and the laughing-jackass, neither of which are 

 numerous in the Blue Mountains, though both are widely 

 spread. The lyre-bird nearly always interposes snatches of 

 its own song between its mimic cries, and finishes its 

 concert with a prolonged solo of its own notes. The times 

 of singing are sometimes early morning, but more often in 

 the evening ; and the song is often kept up till night has 

 quite set in. 



The nest of the lyre-bird more resembles a house than 

 a nest. It is a large enclosed structure, generally placed 

 against a gnarled tree-trunk, or amongst the tangled roots 

 of a partially up-rooted tree ; but it is so constructed, and 

 so skilfully placed that it is almost sure to escape the 

 notice of a careless searcher. It looks like a mass of 

 tangled root-fibres and briers half-buried amidst dead 

 vegetation. The entrance is always well-concealed, and 

 the egg cannot be got at without breaking up the nest. 

 The opening is at the base of the nest, level with the 

 ground, and the bird ascends upwards to a kind of platform 

 beyond which there is a depression for the reception of the 

 egg. Only one egg is laid each season, and that egg is as 

 curious and aberrant as the bird itself. It is usual, in all 

 parts of the world, for the eggs of birds that breed in the 

 dark (and the interior of the nest of a lyre-bird is darker 

 than the interior of a hollow tree-trunk) to be pure white, 



