THE VICTORIAN NATUtiALIST. 107 



betrayed it, commanded a good out-look down hill. Over all, 

 height, breadth and depth, were 2 feet each way ; through diameters 

 (i.e., length and breadth) of interior nest, 1 foot 3 inches and 1 foot 

 respectively ; entrance 6 inches across ; inside or Qgg cavity, from 

 wall to wall, and from roof to floor, 10 inches each way, and from 

 entrance to back wall 1 foot 1 inch. The ragged spouted platform 

 or landing place extended 5 or 6 inches beyond the entrance. 



The Qgg, which was hidden by the feathers, lay at right angles 

 ■with the entrance, and measured 2 inches 5 lines by 1 inches 8 lines. 

 The Qgg was of the usual color, purplish-grey, mottled with spots 

 and blotches of a darker color. 



The female doubles her tail over her back and enters backwards 

 into the nest. When securely settled only her head and tail-tips are 

 visible at the entrance. When incubating, her mate keeps away. 



I could never find evidence of the birds reconstructing their old 

 nests as mentioned by Mr. F. J. Williams in his instructive paper, 

 ■''-The Habits of the Lyre-bird," read before the Club, February, 

 1881 Mr. Williams also states that on going to roost at night 

 thty " choose a secluded spot sheltered from the wind, and mostly in 

 a low tree." My observations are the reverse of this. About dusk 

 I have watched them, till I almost lost their form, fly more than 

 100 feet up to the thick branches of some great forest patriarch. 

 They ascend by a succession of leaps and short flights, from bough 

 to bough, and from tree to tree, always surveying the position after 

 each move. I also know for a fact, that birds have been watched 

 coming out of gullies to roost on large dead trees of the ridges, where 

 they have been shot. In roosting they do not congregate. Some- 

 times during moonliglit seasons a cock bird from his elevated perch 

 •agreeably disturbs the midnight stillness of the forest by his delightful 

 slivill wliistle. 



The powerful sonorous ring of the Lyre-bird's natural song is not 

 surpassed by any of its Australian compeers ; as to its mocking 

 capabilities, it certainly leaves all the world's mocking birds far 

 behind. Its ear is so accurate that it can imitate to the very semi- 

 tone the vocality of any of its forest friends, whether the solemn 

 " mo-poke" of the Owl, the coarse laugh-like notes of the Great Brown 

 Kingflsher, or the higher pitched and more subdued notes of smaller 

 birds. But the most extraordinary performance is the imitating, not 

 a single bird, but a flock ; therefore it has to produce duplex or 

 double-sounding notes. I have heard it imitate simultaneous sounds 

 exactly like the voices of a flock of Pennant's Parrakeets rising from 

 the scrub. It is equally at home with other familiar forest sounds, 

 the grunting of the Koala or ISTative Bear, the barking of the 

 selector's dog, the noise of the splitter's saw, or the clinking of his 

 axe against the metal wedge, all alike are perfectly reproduced in the 

 throat of this most singular feathered mimic. It may be yet proved 



