338 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



fashion. The nest is, however, a very rough piece of architecture, 

 composed almost wholly of twigs, roots, and various sticks, which 

 are interwoven in a very loose, hut very ingenious manner, so as 

 to form a structure of tolerahle firmness, which can he lifted and 

 even subjected to rough treatment without being broken. At first 

 sight it looks Uke those heaps of dead twigs which are so common in 

 the birch-tree, but a closer inspection shows that there is a certain 

 regularity in the disposition of the sticks, and that the bird is not 

 without method, though that method be not at first apparent. 



So rude a structure as this nest would be unsuitable for the 

 tender young, and therefore the whole of the interior is stuffed 

 full of soft feathers. The nest of an allied species, Aibekt 

 JjYR^ BiED {Menura Alberti) is made in a similar manner, 

 except that the materials are almost wholly small and rather 

 long sticks. Specimens of these nests may be seen in the British 

 Museum. Both the birds are very shy, and cannot be approached 

 without the greatest caution. Like the gaUinaceous birds, to 

 which they hear a strong resemblance, they are fond of scratching 

 large holes in sandy soil, sometimes making them nearly a yard 

 in width and eighteen or twenty inches in depth. 



In the " corroboring " places, as the natives call them, the 

 Lyre Bird is mostly to be found, and the experienced hunter 

 always watches for the disappearance of the bird into the hole 

 to make his advance. Every now and then it jumps out of the 

 hole, and struts about, mocking with wonderful facility the notes 

 of various other birds, and even imitating precisely those of the 

 laughing jackass. It has, however, a very sweet and powerful 

 note of its own. Each bird makes three or four of these corro- 

 boring places, sometimes at a distance of three or four hundred 

 yards from each other. 



Dr. Stephenson thinks that the corroboring places are not 

 merely made for amusement, but that they are used as traps in 

 which are caught sundry beetles and other insects, which fall into 

 the pits and cannot get out again. Should this ingenious theory 

 be true, the Lyre Bird and the ant-Uon have a similar method of 

 trapping their prey in sandy pitfalls, though the former is a bird 

 and the latter an immature insect. 



OuB last example of the Building Birds will be the well- 

 known Bower Bied of Australia {PtUovarhynchus holosericms). 



