12 SOME BIRDS OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 



one could almost believe it It certainly has an old-time, 

 extinct, antediluvian appearance — the characteristic appear- 

 ance, indeed, of several Australian birds and animals. The 

 plumage is usually described as brown with reddish mark- 

 ings on the tail feathers, and grey under parts ; but in life, 

 at anyrate, the tail coverts, most of the tail feathers, and 

 the under parts, have a peculiar dust colour that I have not 

 seen in any other bird, living or dead. This peculiar tone, 

 combined with the remarkable form of the lyre-bird, gives 

 it a unique appearance that is not exceeded by that of any 

 other avian curiosity. It seems, in very fact, to be the 

 strange inhabitant of an undeveloped, newly created land. 

 That, at least, is the impression that it has always given to 

 my mind. 



The Blue Mountain range is, as I have said, the strong- 

 hold of the lyre-bird. There it can be seen and watched 

 as it certainly cannot be in any other part of the country. 

 It is there now more abundant than in any other district, 

 though it might, perhaps, be more correct to say that this 

 is the only part of the country where it is not practically 

 exterminated. For a long time a good price was obtain- 

 able at Sydney for its feathers, and if a bird was ever seen 

 within a hundred miles of that city it was tracked down 

 and shot. Never numerous, it is now only found with 

 difficulty in most parts of the colony. There are a few 

 spots, however, in the mountains where it has not been dis- 

 turbed, especially the isolated valleys which were described 

 in the first chapter. 



It has always been considered, by systematists, a 

 puzzling bird, and has been allotted to at least half a dozen 

 genera. Some thought it a thrush, others a wren. For a 

 time it was a crow ; and when first discovered it was 

 described as a gallinacious bird ; while the French naturalist 

 Vieillot called it " Parkinson's Bird of Paradise," a descrip- 

 tion which was accepted by an English ornithologist of 

 some note. It is now usually placed among the Passeres, 

 or perching-birds. In any case the lyre-birds are an 

 aberrant family. Avian classification presents great diffi- 

 culties; and the order Passeres (or perching-birds) as at 



