139 [Vol. xlii. 



would snojgest a less restrictive and more truly scientific 

 policy as to collecting in the future. 



Mr. Asliby then described the habits of the Lyre-Bird 

 [Menura victorice), showing a splendid skin of a male that had 

 been collected at Yennar in Grippsland. He described the 

 nature of the splendid forest in which it was found, and related 

 that before shooting the bird he and his companions listened 

 for something like half an hour to its fine vocal performance. 

 During that time eleven different species of birds were 

 mimicked, their songs and call-notes being reproduced by the 

 Lyre-Bird with perfect accuracy. In addition, there were its 

 own peculiar calls and the imitation of the twittering of a 

 number of small birds, making in all a total of fourteen 

 separate songs and calls. The full details of this mimicry 

 had been carefully recorded on the label attached to the skin 

 of the Lyre-Bird exhibited, making that particular skin 

 quite unique. 



Mr. Ashby attributed the fact of this vocal performance 

 being given on the 4th of April, instead of during the pairing 

 season of June and July, to the fact that, on that Easter 

 Monday of two years ago, it was pouring with rain, the 

 wet weatlier ajjparently acting as a stimulus to the Lyre- 

 Bird in the same manner that sunshine does to many other 

 birds. 



He then gave particulars of the nesting-habits of the 

 mound-building birds of Australia, showing a fine specimen 

 of the Mallee Fowl (Leipoa ocellatci) and suggesting a hypo- 

 thesis explaining the causes that have led this bird to utilise 

 sun-heat as well as heat generated by fermenting material in 

 the incubation of its eggs. The full particulars will appear 

 in a paper in ' The Ibis.' 



Mr. T. GriLBERT Pearson, President of the National 

 Association of the Audubon Societies of the United States 

 of America, gave an eloquent address on the subject of 

 the conservation of bird-life in North America, durino- 

 which he made a point of the fact that in America the 



