THE LYRE-BIRD. 265 



Even the creeper does not attempt to run down a tree with its head towards the ground. 

 It is a very hardy bird, continuing to pick up an abundant supply of food even in the 

 depths of winter, always appearing plump and lively. 



The nest of the Nuthatch is placed in the hollow of a decaying tree, and the bird 

 always chooses some hole to which there is but a small entrance. Should the orifice be 

 too large to please its taste, it ingeniously builds up the orifice with clay and mud, pro- 

 bably to prevent the intrusion of any other bird. If any foe should venture too near the 

 nest, the mother bird becomes exceeding valiant, and dashing boldly at her enemy, bites 

 and pecks so vigorously with her powerful beak, hissing and scolding the while, that she 

 mostly succeeds in driving away the assailant. The nest is a very inartificial structure, 

 made chiefly of dried leaves laid loosely upon the decaying wood, and rudely scraped into 

 the form of a nest. 



In its colour the Nuthatch is rather a pretty bird, of pleasing though not of brilliantly 

 tinted plumage. The general colour of the upper parts is a delicate bluish-grey, the throat 

 is white, and the abdomen and under parts are reddish-brown, warming into rich chestnut 

 on the flanks. From the angle of the mouth a narrow black band passes towards the 

 back of the neck, enveloping the eye in its course and terminating suddenly before it 

 i-eaches the shoulders. The tail is black on the base and grey towards the tip, except the 

 two outer tail-feathers, which have each a black spot near the extremity. The shafts are 

 also black. 



We now arrive at the family of the Wrens, in which group we find tvro birds so dissi- 

 milar in outward appearance as apparently to belong to different orders, the one being the 

 common Wren of England, and the other the celebrated LYEE-BIBD of Australia. 



This bird, which also goes under the name of NATIVE PHEASANT among the colonists, 

 and is generally called BULLEN-BULLEN by the natives, on account of its peculiar cry, 

 would, if it had been known to the ancients, have been consecrated to Apollo, its 

 lyre-shaped tail and flexible voice giving it a double claim to such honours. The extra- 

 ordinary tail of this bird is often upwards of ten feet in length, and consists of sixteen 

 feathers, formed and arranged in a very curious and graceful manner. The two outer 

 feathers are broadly webbed, and, as may be seen in the illustration, are curved in a manner 

 that gives to the widely-spread tail the appearance of an ancient lyre. When the tail is 

 merely held erect and not spread, the two lyre-shaped feathers cross each other, and 

 produce an entirely different outline. The two central tail-feathers are narrowly webbed, 

 and all the others are modified with long slender shafts, bearded by alternate feathery 

 filaments, and well representing the strings of the lyre. 



The tail is seen in its greatest beauty between the months of June and September, 

 after which time it is shed, to make its first reappearance in the ensuing February or 

 March. The habits of this bird are very curious, and are so well and graphically related 

 by Mr. Gould, that they must be given in his own words : 



The great stronghold of the Lyre-bird is the colony of New South Wales, and from 

 what I could learn, its range does not extend so far to the eastward as Moreton Bay, 

 neither have I been able to trace it to the westward of Port Phillip on the southern coast ; 

 but further research can only determine these points. It inhabits equally the bushes on 

 Ihe coast and those that clothe the sides of the mountains in the interior. On the coast it 

 is especially abundant at the Western Port and Illawarra ; in the interior, the cedar 

 brushes of the Liverpool range, and according to Mr. G. Bennett, the mountains of the 

 Tumat country, are among the places of which it is the denizen. 



Of all the birds I have ever met with, the Menura is far the most shy and difficult to 

 procure. While among the mountains I have been surrounded by these 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 this desirable object, which was rendered more difficult by their 

 often frequenting the almost inaccessible and precipitous sides of gullies and ravines, 

 covered with tangled masses of creepers and umbrageous trees : the cracking of a stick, 

 the rolling down of a small stone, or any other noise, however slight, is sufficient to alarm 



