MENURA SUPEIiBA. 



(Lyre Bird.) 



Male. — Upper surface, dark greyish brown ; throat and wings, rufous brown ; upper tail coverts, tinged with the latter colour ; under 

 s urface, brownish ash color ; upper surface of the two lyre-shaped feathers of the tail, dark greyish brown, partially banded with rufous ; 

 under surface of the same feathers, silvery grey, with rufous bands ; the extreme margins of the inner webs and the extremities, black ; the 

 two next largest feathers are narrow and densely webbed on one side only, except near the tip, which is sparingly furnished with a few rays ; 

 the remaining feathers, twelve in number, are thin shafts, sparingly decora,ted with long filaments on both sides. 



The Female is destitute of the long and beautiful tail which adorns her mate, her tail consisting of feathers of the ordinary 

 kind ; in other respects she much resembles the Male. Bill, black ; orbits, lead color ; irides, dark brown ; legs and feet, black. 

 Length, 42 inches ; wing, 11 ; tail, 30 ; bill, If ; tarsus, 5 ; middle toe, 3f . 



Naturalists have differed very much in opinion as to what family this singular bird belongs ; some place it among the 

 gallinaceous class, its large and powerful feet and its general aspect indicating its relationship to the megapodes. As throughout this work 

 I have followed Mr. Grould's arrangement, it will be unnecessary to say anything on these controverted points, except that other naturalists 

 with, what appear to them, reasons equally cogent, have placed the Menura among the family of the Wrens. This remarkable bird is an 

 inhabitant of hilly and mountainous districts in New South "Wales, its range extending westward to Port Philip, where it seems to give place 

 to another species somewhat different. The wildest and most inaccessible country, rocky gullies, and precipitous ravines covered with a 

 dense and tangled vegetation, are the situations in which it delights. Its shy and wary habits, added to the natural difiiculty of the district it 

 selects as its habitat, entails upon any one anxious to obtain specimens the expenditure of much toil and patience. In the dense brushes of 

 Illawarra it has, perhaps, been obtained most frequently. Its loud and liquid call, or extraordinary imitations of the notes of the various 

 birds frequenting its own neighbourhood, as well as other sounds of more unusual character, as the howling of the dingo, or even the 

 sharpening of a saw, may often be heard in the near proximity of the sportsman, whose only chance of making an approach is at such times, 

 for the moment the bird is silent, the slightest alarm, such as the cracking of a twig, is sufficient to scare it ofi" to a distance. The Menura 

 should be sought for in the winter season, as at that time it is in the full beauty of its plumage. The nest, built upon the ground, is large 

 and deep, formed of sticks, and lined with strips of bark and fibrous roots, and placed in such a situation that, while the bird can see around, 

 it is well screened from the observation of all intruders, and covered at the top with a kind of canopy or dome. Onl}^ one egg is laid, the 

 color of which is, doubtless, similar to that of the variety or species found to the westward of Port Philip, viz., purplish grey, with numerous 

 spots and blotches of purplish brown, especially at the larger end ; length, 2^ inches, by 1| wide. 



