CLASSIFICATION OF THE LYRE-BIRD 13 



present laid down is simply an ornithological receiving- ship 

 where avain nondescripts are sent until they can be allotted 

 to their proper stations. The Passeres form the bulk of 

 the birds, and the order is a convenient one in which to 

 place a bird that cannot be satisfactorily established in any 

 other ; but I strongly doubt that it is a passere. On the 

 other hand, so many Australian types of animals, of nearly 

 all classes, are so manifestly aberrant that it behoves one 

 to be chary of expressing an opinion. 



Superficially the bird resembles some types of Indian 

 pheasants, both in size and appearance. It is also like a 

 crow, but it does not at all resemble a wren or a thrush. 

 Judging, as he did, from a drawing only, Vieillot was 

 justified in thinking it a bird of paradise, especially con- 

 sidering the region from which it was reported. The 

 birds of paradise are, in my opinion, closely allied to the 

 crows, but crow-like as is the lyre-bird, its plumage is not 

 at all like that of the hard, glossy corvidce, but is very full, 

 and beautifully soft and fleecy to the touch. The hen has 

 not the remarkable lyre-shaped tail which distinguishes the 

 cock, but her tail is full and plume-like. The cock has 

 also a crest of filamentous feathers. The legs and feet are 

 adapted to swift running on the ground ; but though they 

 can run very rapidly, they are sometimes caught by dogs. 

 It is not a strong flyer, but rises without difficulty and flies 

 much like a weak-winged crow. It soon drops, always 

 choosing for the place of alighting a patch of dense scrub, 

 in which it runs to some secure lurking-place, so that I 

 have rarely succeeded in flushing one a second time. I 

 have read of their ascending to the tops of tall trees, but 

 have never seen such a thing. They sometimes perch on 

 low branches a few feet above the ground, apparently for 

 the purpose of surveying the ground, but never fly very 

 high, and at the least sound they instantly drop to 

 the ground, and run to shelter at full speed, uttering, 

 two or three times, a single note of fright or warning. 

 The lyre-bird is one of the most timid and cautious birds 

 found on the Australian continent. Yet it is a pugnacious 

 bird, and two cocks will sometimes fight fiercely, the source 



