LYRE-BIRDS. 



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on each side ; but the most curious feature is the absence of clavicles, of which only 

 a small rudiment is left, a feature absolutely unique amongst Passeres. 



The lyre-birds, therefore, constitute the family MENTJRIDJE. Their chief internal 

 characteristics have already been mentioned ; we shall only add that, notwithstand- 

 ing Professor Huxley's assertion to the contrary, maxillo-palatines are present, being 

 long and slender, and separate from one another and from the vomer, and that the 

 syrinx is supplied with only three pairs of intrinsic muscles. Externally these birds 

 are not less remarkable, as will be seen from the accompanying cut. They are rather 

 large birds, the body equalling in size that of a ruffed-grouse ; the head is small, the 



FIG. 230. Menura superba, lyre-bird. 



tarsi are very long and stout and the toes are provided with long and rather straight 

 claws. The above characters, except the last one, in connection with the unique tail, 

 give these Australian birds quite the aspect of one of the Gallinaceous order, with 

 which, indeed, some earlier ornithologists placed them, and the colonists in New South 

 Wales call them ' pheasants ' to-day. The beautiful tail of the male is composed of 

 the unusual number of sixteen rectrices, which are enormously lengthened and grace- 

 fully curved, so as to imitate the shape of a lyre when raised. When the bird is sing- 

 ing the tail is displayed in the same manner as a peacock spreads his train. The 

 color of the lyre-bird is a sombre dusky, in several places tinged with rufous, and there 

 is nothing particularly attractive about it beyond its unrivalled tail. 



Two species only are recognized in the genus Menura, the only one constituting 



