16 SOME BIRDS OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 



but the egg of the lyre-bird is black, or so nearly black that 

 it cannot be described by any other word. It has a peculiar 

 smudged appearance ; but the eggs vary a little, some being 

 darker and clearer than others. All are black, however, 

 and large in size compared with the bird. 



I have thought from the time I first examined a 

 lyre-bird's nest that its peculiar shape is intended as a 

 defence against snakes and lizards. These reptiles could 

 not possibly get at the young without exposing themselves 

 to an unguardable attack from the hen bird, and the nest 

 is probably highly protective in appearance. Before I 

 gained experience I could never discover a lyre-bird's 

 nest until I almost kicked against it. The time of nesting 

 is, in New South Wales, from April to July. I have taken 

 eggs as early as the middle of April, and unfledged birds 

 may be found in July. All attempts which I have made to 

 rear the young have failed, and the old birds will seldom 

 live in captivity. 



The eagle referred to above as being mimicked by 

 the lyre-bird is the white-bellied sea-eagle, Haliaetus 

 leucogaster, though the magnificent wedge-tailed eagle, 

 Uroaetus audax, is also found in the Blue Mountains. 

 The white-bellied eagle comes in from the sea every 

 evening about sun-down. It is irregular in its habits, 

 and probably only a few come to the mountains to roost. 

 As I could never find its nest in the mountains, I conclude 

 that it always breeds on the sea-coast. 



The wedge-tailed eagle does breed in the Blue 

 Mountain range and throughout the mountains of the 

 east side of Australia, and also in the larger islands off the 

 coast, and I have obtained specimens from the western 

 mountains of New Zealand. The bird has a very wide 

 habitat in these regions, but I have not found it to be 

 anywhere numerous. A pair seem to occupy a district 

 which is not intruded on by others of the same species, 

 though the wedge-tailed is not so quarrelsome as the sea- 

 eagle, which has frequent squabbles with its companions 

 and with hawks of other species. 



Both eagles eat almost any kind of food they can find, 



