278 
ABOUT THE LYRE-BIRU. 
never seen except in couples : and when two male birds meet together, 
then comes "the tug of war;*' they fall to blows immediately, and the 
combat 'is always terribly in earnest. When he runs, the lyre-bird, 
like the pheasant, holds his body extended, with the head bent 
slightly downward, the tail closed up and horizontal. It is particu- 
larly at moi'n and eve that he displays his activity. 
In the breeding-season the bird builds up a small mound of earth, 
on which he takes up his position, with tail elevated and expanded, and 
representing, with considerable exactness, the figure of a Greek lyre; 
the two outer feathers, one on each side, curving like the letter S, with 
close and compact barbs, but of unequal length, — an ornament of 
singular elegance and of fine eff'ect. As if conscious of the beauty of 
this appendage, there stands the lyre-bird, (what name could be more 
appropriate ?) and gives expression in continuous song to his various 
sentiments. His voice is very flexible ; the strain differs according to 
the locality, for it is composed of notes peculiar to the singer, and of 
notes which he borrows from other birds. Becker, indeed, speaks of the 
i3iTe-bird as a mimic of extraordinary excellence. In Gipp's Land, he 
says, on the southern slope of the Australian Alps, was situated a saw- 
mill ; and there on Sundays, when all work was suspended, could be 
heard, in the neighbouring forest, the barking of a dog, the laughter of 
a man, the song of various birds, the weeping of children, the strident 
noise of the saw ; and all these sounds proceeded from a single lyre- 
bird, which had established his residence at no great distance from the 
saw-mill. In his love-season he develops his imitative powers to a 
remarkable extent; and tluis Australia, like America, can boast of its 
mocking-bird. 
The nest of the lyre-bird is usually planted in the midst of bushes, 
on the declivities of the deeper ravines, or at the foot of the mountain- 
cliffs, in the immediate vicinity of a rippling rill. 
There tlie bird seeks the young trees which, growing close together, 
and with trunks interlaced, form a kind of " funnel ; " and there, a foot 
or two above the gi'ound, he constructs his habitation. Sometimes, 
however, he places it in the hollow of a tree, or on a fern of moderate 
height. The nest measures about twenty inches in diameter, and six 
