L VRE-BIRDS. 



357 



The Lyre-Birds. 

 — Order 



Maiurm. 



field's broadbill (S. javmiwtis), which is found in Java and the Malayan 

 islands and peninsula as far north as Tenasserim. The food of the broad- 

 bills appears to consist of insects, but occasionally of small reptiles. They 

 are inhabitants of the forests, and are said to be sluggish and somewhat stupid 

 birds. The nests are suspended from the boughs of trees, and are of a purse- 

 hke shape, being composed of fibre and grass. Unlike the eggs of Galypto- 

 mena, those of the true broadbills are spotted with black or brownish-red on 

 a cream-coloured ground. 



The lyre-birds have always been considered aberrant passerine birds, but 

 they cannot in any way, according to our ideas, be associated with the 

 Passeriformes, on account of their curious nesting-habits and 

 downy nestling. In addition to this, the lyre-birds have 

 other anatomical features, which separate them from the 

 true perching birds, and we believe that our separation of 

 the MenurcB as a distinct order will be followed by future 

 systematists, as the young lyre-bird looks more like the nestling of a petrel 

 than that of any other bird, and such a nestling plumage is unknown in any 

 species oE passerine bird, the young of which are mostly hatched naked. 

 The adult lyre-bird is a very remarkable creature. 

 It has legs like those of a megapode, and altogether 

 looks more like a Game-Bird than anything else, but 

 it must be looked upon, we think, as a kind of 

 gigantic wren, though in effect it is, like so many of 

 the Australasian birds, a form by itself. We have 

 heard it suggested that the lyre-birds are allied to 

 the birds of paradise, but the only warranty for 

 such a proposition is that the plumage of the tail in 

 Menura is fantastic, as is the decorative plumage of 

 the birds of paradise. Three species of Menura are 

 known, all peculiar to the continent of Australia. 

 They are very shy birds, inhabiting the brush country, 

 and living solitary or in pairs. The food consists of 

 insects, chiefly beetles and centipedes, occasionally 

 varied with snails. Their strong feet give them 

 the power of making enormous leaps, and Gould 

 states that they will jump from the ground to a 

 bough ten feet above it. The nest of the lyre-bird 

 is domed like that of a wren ; it is of large size, 

 formed of sticks, and lined with feathers, and it has 

 a kind of outer rough covering, composed of sticks, moss, and leaves. Only 

 one egg is laid, of a purplish-grey colour, spotted and blotched with purplish 

 brown. 



The principal character which distinguishes the Passeres or perching-birds 

 is the form of the palate, which is segithognathous or passerine, with the 

 vomer truncated in front. The hind toe is always present, 

 and is connected with the flexor longus hallucis tendon and 

 not with the flexor perforans digitorum. The bulk of the 

 Passeriformes belong to the division Acromyodi, in which the 

 intrinsic muscles of the syrinx are fixed to the ends of the 

 bronchial semi-rings. Much discussion has taken place between ornithologists 

 as to which is the highest form of bird, and many are inclined to think that 

 preference should be given to the thrushes and warblers, on account of 



Fig. 92.— The LybeBied 

 {Menura superba). 



The Perohing- 

 Birds. — Order 



Passeriformes, 



