2S o AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN ANIMALS 



in Tasmania. Although these birds have been classed with the crows, there is 

 considerable reason to believe that their proper position is in the shrike family 

 (LariiidcB). 



Here may be mentioned the rufous scrub-bird (AtricJiomis 

 rufescens), which, together with A. clamosa of western, and south- 

 western, Australia, represents a family group, the Atrichornithidce, of low 

 Passerines. The first eggs of this species known to science were discovered in 

 the high Dorrigo scrubs at the head of the Bellinger River, New South Wales. 

 The nest is a large dome-shaped structure, with a tubular entrance built amid 

 thick bush in a tussock of dead carex-grass, and is constructed of this grass and 

 leaves, with a lining of a hard dry material made of wood-pulp, upon which 

 the two eggs rest. 



Another and more aberrant family — the Menuridce — of perching 

 birds is formed by the Australian lyi'e-birds, of which the most 

 common species (Menura superba) may be compared -in size to a pheasant. The 

 feature from which these curious birds take their name is the lyre-like form of the 

 long tail-feathers, which are generally carried upright. When singing, these birds 

 spread their tails in peacock-fashion and droop the wings. They imitate to per- 

 fection the notes of other birds, and associate in pairs, each of which has a special 

 territory, where they remain constantly during the breeding-season. The lyre- 

 shaped tail is the exclusive prerogative of the adult cocks, females and immature 

 males having tail-feathers of normal form. Not till the lyre-shaped plumes are 

 fully developed — a feature which does not take place till the fourth year, when the 

 central pair attains full perfection — do the cocks commence to sing. Sad to say, 

 lyre-birds in some parts of the country, notably Victoria, stand in imminent danger 

 of extermination. The Victorian lyre-bird, which represents a species (M. victorice) 

 by itself, is restricted to the densely timbered, moist, mountainous tracts of the 

 colony, where insect-food is abundant, and the bird is consequently local. In south 

 Gippsland a few years ago these birds were to be met with in thousands, so that 

 the woods re-echoed with their songs. How such birds attained this great 

 development, when it is remembered that they nest on the ground, and that 

 predatory marsupials were equally common, is not easy to surmise, but such is the 

 fact. Now, however, the days of the lyre-bird appear to be numbered, unless it 

 should develop the habit of nesting in trees habitually instead of only now and 

 then. In most parts of Victoria its greatest enemy is the European fox, which has 

 overrun the greater part, if not the whole of the colony, where it has developed 

 the habit of ascending inclined tree-trunks to a considerable height. Scattered 

 feet and an occasional tail of lyre-birds attest the destruction attributed to foxes. 

 In south Gippsland, on the other hand, the bird is stated to be doomed to extermin- 

 ation at the hand of man. Guns, forest-spoliation, and bush-fires are the active 

 agencies in this instance, and such of the scrub as is left is now silent, instead of 

 resounding with the lyre-birds' notes. With the disappearance of the scrub goes 

 the lyre-bird, and as the district gets cleared only patches of scrubby country are 

 left. Till they are. burnt, these become the temporary home of such birds as have 

 escaped the gun, the clearing, and the fire, but when the final clearing takes place 

 the lyre-birds disappear for ever. 



