Norwich Castle Museum, Vie 
has an exceedingly long slender and curved bill, and in 
LVasica the bill is long and straight. Several other 
genera are represented. 
The next bird which calls for remark is one of the 
most extraordinary of the strangely-plumaged birds of 
which Australia furnishes so many examples; it is 
known from the curious form assumed by its tail 
feathers, as the Lyre-Bird, Menura superba. Gould 
gives an account of its habits in his Birds of Australia, 
and describes it as most difficult to obtain a sight of, 
its haunts being rocky and thick “brushes,” where it 
may be heard for days together without being seen ; 
the wonderful tail is not acquired by the male till his 
third or fourth year, and then only between the months 
of June and October; its food consists chiefly of 
beetles and snails. ‘There are three species known, 
but it is feared that so remarkable a bird and one of 
such natural boldness of habit will not long survive. 
- We now enter upon the second sub-order of the 
great order PASSERIFORMES, namely EURYLAMI, 
which contains two families only, those of the Green 
Broadbills and the Broadbills proper. 
The Green Broadbills, CatypTomenip™, are repre- 
sented in the collection by three examples obtained in 
Borneo, they are quaint little birds, with helmet-like 
feathers on the upper mandible. 
The third sub-order of the Passeriformes is that of 
the TROCHILI or Humming Birds, consisting of a 
single large family, TrocHitip#, numbering some 476 
species, confined exclusively to America, but extend- 
ing on that continent from Alaska to Patagonia. We 
are so accustomed to associate birds of bright plumage 
with the sunny regions of the tropics, that it may be a 
matter of surprise to some to learn that these birds, 
the brightest of all, inhabit not alone the forests 
of South America, but: certain species have been 
