THE LYRE BIRD. 329 
cries of all the birds in the bush. He then becomes silent 
and remains so during the day until about an hour before 
sunset, when he again commences singing and playing about 
until it is quite dark. 
This species chooses sandy localities and feeds wholly on 
insects, mingled with a considerable proportion of sand, but 
is without the crop found among the gravel-using Rasores. 
It commences building in May, lays its eggs in June, and 
hatches its young in July. Choosing some bare rock where 
there is a sufficient shelter for a lodgement, it builds an 
oven-shaped nest, outwardly constructed of sticks or roots, 
tendrils, or the leaves of palms, and lined with soft green 
mosses, or the skeleton leaf of the parasitical tree ferns, — 
a substance almost as elastic as horse hair. This nest is 
completely rain proof and has the entrance on one side. 
A nest of this species, with two eggs, is deposited in the 
British Museum. The nest is about two feet in length, by 
sixteen inches in breadth, and is domed over except at one 
end. The eggs, about the size of those of the common fowl, 
are of a deep purplish chocolate, irregularly blotched and 
freckled with a darker color. 
The nestling is covered with white down and remains six 
weeks in the nest. 
In this species the male bird is about four years old before 
he acquires his full tail; the two centre curved feathers are 
the last to make their appearance. 
Of the nest of M. superba we find no FORUM clear descrip- 
` tion, but it appears very nearly to resemble that of M. Al- 
tii. The eggs of the former species are said to be of a 
lighter color, and the young to be blind as well as helpless. 
The method of nest building, the helplessness of the 
young, and their passerine manner of feeding, taken in con- 
nection with the structure of the Menaul. all point to a 
position considerably higher than the Megapodes. It is true, 
the young are covered with down, but exceptions occur 
among the Fissirostral birds, as for instance, the Night Hawk 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV. 
