THE LYRE BIRD. 



nest, together with mosses, lichens, and similar substances. 

 Withered leaves are generally worked into the nest, and I have 

 more than once found specimens which were almost wholly 

 composed of leaves. The size of the nest is wonderfully large, 

 when the dimensions of the tiny architect are taken into con- 

 sideration, and however large may be the hole in which the 

 Wren makes its nest, it is nearly filled with the mass of grass, 

 leaves, and wool which the Wren has conveyed into it. The 

 interior of the nest is always warmly lined, sometimes with 

 feathers, and sometimes with hair, and in the lining are gene- 

 rally some six or eight little eggs, nearly white, and covered 

 with very minute red specks. 



As is the case with the redbreast and one or two of our more 

 familiar birds, the Wren will sometimes enter houses and build 

 its nest in curtains, on shelves, and similar localities, while the 

 interior of a disused greenhouse or stable loft is nearly sure to 

 be tenanted by a Wren and its little brood. 



Australia is proverbially a strange land, and it is only in 

 Australia, or perhaps in Madagascar, that v.'e should look for a 

 wren measuring some seventeen inches in height. Such a bird 

 is, however, to be found in Australia, and is known to the natives 

 by the name of Bttllen-Bullen, and to the Europeans as the 

 Lyre Bird {Mcnura superhd). It is remarkable by the way that 

 the genius of the Australian language causes many words to be 

 doubled, so that the natives speak of a well-known Australian 

 marsupial as the devil-devil, and of a domestic servant as Jacky- 

 Jacky. 



New South Wales is the chosen country of the Lyre Bird, 

 which is rather local, and affects certain defined boundaries. Its 

 native name is derived from its peculiar cry, and the popular 

 European name is given to the bird on account of the shape of 

 its tail feathers. The two exterior feathers are curved in such a 

 manner, that when the whole tail is spread they exactly re- 

 semble the horns of an ancient lyre, the place of the strings 

 being taken by a number of slender decomposed feathers which 

 rise from the centre of the tail. When the bird is quietly at 



