76 Wonders of the Bird World 



Game-bird, and especially resembles some of the Megapodes 

 in colour. It is, moreover, furnished with feet of large size, 

 which again remind us of the Mound-builders. There can, 

 however, be no doubt that the Meiuira is a Passerine Bird, 

 and not a Game-bird at all. There are three kinds of 

 Lyre-bird, the common species, M. supcrba, Queen Victoria's 

 Lyre-bird {M. victorice), and Prince Albert's Lyre-bird 

 {M . alberti), all of them occupying different districts of the 

 Australian continent, and each having its peculiar distri- 

 bution. Owing to the beauty of the species and the interest 

 attaching to them, the birds have been much shot down of 

 late years, and in some places are in danger of extinction. 

 FuU-plumaged males are very rare in collections, as it takes 

 four years before they gain their complete livery, and 

 even then the beautiful tail is moulted after a very short 

 time. The Lyre-birds, on account of their wonderful tail, 

 must be reckoned among the most fantastically ornamented 

 birds in the world, and no other bird quite equals them for 

 peculiar decoration. The filamentous character of the long 

 feathers is produced in the usual way, viz. by the absence 

 of barbules or hooklets, and the barbs, which constitute the 

 chief part of the web of a feather, are situated at about a 

 quarter of an inch from one another, so that there is a verj' 

 wide interval between them, and this imparts a hair-like 

 appearance. In this same way the light feathery plumes 

 of the Birds of Paradise can be accounted for, as they show 

 the same filmy character as does the Lyre-bird's tail. 

 Notwithstanding the solid aspect of the broad outer 

 feathers in the latter, their structure is one of the most 

 wonderful of any bird. The outer web is ver}^ narrow, and 

 the inner web broad and of a chestnut colour. At I'egular 

 intervals appear to be notches of light pattern, but on closer 

 examination it will be seen that these are not real notches, 

 but are intervals in the feather where there are no barbules, 

 so that these interspaces look more or less transparent. 



