A NATURALIST’S NOTES FROM THE BUSH. 
By Cyrin Grant LANe. 
TV. THE AUSTRALIAN LYRE-BIRD. 
T all times when reference is made to the Australian Lyre-Bird I seem to be 
swiftly transported to the forest home of these singularly interesting birds; to 
hear, as it were, the subdued splashing of the scrub-embowered, fern-hidden creeks 
flowing over the bed-rock of their chosen course from down the mountain-gullies, 
deeply shaded by canopies of promiscuous foliage, which, by its very density, defies the 
brilhant actinic rays of cloudless skies to filter through the secret depths of shadow 
and illumine the crystal waters flowing beneath: to be midst solemn mountains studded 
from base to summit with the softly-gleamimg trunks of the mountain-ash, clothed 
with the olive-brown of their tapering, pendulous leaves: instinctively to feel that great 
hush so impressive, that calm and dignified silence so potent a part in the whole 
atmosphere of a mountainous region: and then, listen to the lyre-bird! The dogwood 
scrub thrusts its slender canes up towards the greater light; the supplejack, with 
toughened strands and sinuous tendrils, clasps the vegetation in powerful embrace, while 
the drooping fronds of ten thousand graceful tree-ferns gently fan the flower-scented 
atmosphere and shade the deep rich soil from the fiercer heat of the sun. From the 
margin of all such creeks rank patches of bracken-fern creep up the rugged sides of 
the contiguous ranges, covering their slopes with a mantle of green and brown, and 
affording to the entire animal life of the locality admirable cover from the ravages of 
their respective enemies. 
Here, among these great quiet ranges, where a perpetual softened twilight percolates 
in delicate shafts of green and amber hue through the reticulate masses of foliage, is 
the ideal home, the true 
haunt, of the most wonder- 
ful bird-vocalist resident in 
the forest depths of the 
bush. I feel that im taking 
up my pen to write of this 
bird all diftidence and hesi- 
tation may be waived on 
one side, for I have known 
the lyre-bird in its every 
phase of life, am conversant 
with its every habit, mood, 
and feature of interest, and 
best of all, am familiar 
with the almost unlimited 
ability it possesses of imi- 
tating the variety of sounds 
common to its environment. Ee 
To see and judge of Photo by Cyril Grant TES 
the bird for one’s self it THE HAUNT OF THE LYRB-BIRD, 
oll 
