9388 Notices of Boohs. 



Aricennia, and other plants and shrubs that affect salt and brackish 

 swamps, but also (as I was credibly informed by several native shika- 

 rees, to whom I was first indebted lor the information of these pigeons 

 resorting there) pick up the salt earth on the edge of the swamp, and 

 of the various creeks and back waters that intersect the ground. I 

 visited this place towards the end of May, 1849, when many of the 

 pigeons had gone, as I was informed, but even then saw considerable 

 numbers flying about and feeding on the buds of the Aricennia, and 

 then retiring a short distance to some lofty trees to rest. Although the 

 day was unfavourable and rainy, I killed above a dozen of these fine 

 pigeons, and several natives, who were there with guns for the purpose . 

 of shooting them, assured me that they often killed from one to two | 

 dozens daily, simply remaining in one spot. Had I not secured the 

 birds m3'self in this locality, I confess I would barely have accredited 

 the account I received of these mountain residents descending to the 

 plains during the hottest season of the year. I presume that these 

 pigeons breed after their return to the hills, but I have no information 

 on this head."— P. 4-'i8. 



Episodically Mr. Jerdon introduces a notice of the lyre-bird, appa- 

 rently with no other object than to give his idea of its affinities. These 

 ideas are not only interesting, but, as it appears to me, very rational. 

 On this subject I am quite content to await the evidence which its j 

 economy and habits will undoubtedly supply, whenever these shall be I 

 satisfactorily ascertained. Mr. Jerdon is certainly right in craving a 

 reconsideration of a question so deeply interesting to every naturalist, 

 whether ornithologist or not. 1 need not inform ornithologists that 

 the lyre-bird is Australian, and not Indian. 



" Lyre-bird of Australia (Menura superba). — The celebrated lyre- 

 bird of Australia has so much the aspect of a Megapodine bird, that I 

 cannot help considering it as not far removed from this family. Its 

 extraordinary and unique tail consists of sixteen feathers, a number 

 unknown amongst the Insessores, not one of which has more than 

 twelve ; its great size, compared with that of the minute birds among 

 which it is usually placed by systematists, viz., the wrens and the 

 warblers; its strong gallinaceous legs and feet ; its habit of running 

 with facility, which it always employs in preference to flight;— all these 

 combine to remove this bird from the Insessores ; and its geographic re- | 

 lations with the Megapodii must also be taken into account. It is said, 

 however, to build a neat nest on a ledge of rock, to have the power of 

 modulating its voice, and that the young are helpless at birth. If these 

 habits are fully confinned, I would still prefer placing it as a separate 



