THE LYRE-BIRD'S NEST. 
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inches in height. The materials used are fine and flexible roots, with 
very delicate feathers for the lining, and a layer of twigs and bits of 
wood for the base. The upper half of the nest is distinct from the 
lower, and can easily be detached ; it is formed of mosses, ferns, and 
fragments of wood, and covers the lower like a roof Seen from a 
distance, it resembles a heap of grasses and dry branches, about three 
feet in height and breadth. The entrance is at the side. 
The lyre-bird breeds but once a year, and lays only a single egg, 
very like a duck's. It is of a clear ashy-gray colour, sprinkled with 
brown spots. The female bird, it should be added, does not possess 
the lyre-like tail of her more fortunate spouse. 
AUSTRALIAN SCENERY. 
A sketch of the picturesque scenery which Australia in many 
places presents, is drawn by the late Henry Kingsley with much 
vividness of colouring. Let us introduce it, as a relief to our more 
sober descriptions : — 
"It was a glorious crystal-clear day in autumn; all Nature, aroused 
from her summer's rest, had put off" her suit of hodden-gray, and was 
flaunting in gaudiest green. The atmosphere, was so amazingly pure, 
that miles away across the plains the travellers could distinguish the 
herds of turkeys (bustards) stalking to and fro; while before them that 
noble maritime mountain, Cape Chatham, towered up, sharply defined 
above the gleaming haze which marked the distant sea. 
" For a time their way lay straight across the broad, well-grassed 
plains, marked with ripples as though the retiring sea had but just left 
it. Then a green swamp; through the tall reeds the native com- 
panion, king of cranes, waded majestic ; the brilliant porphyry water- 
hen, with scarlet bill and legs, flashed like a sapphire among the 
emerald-green water-sedge. A shallow lake, dotted with wild ducks; 
here and there a group of wild swans, black, with red bills, floating 
calmly on its bosom. A long stretch of grass as smooth as a bowling- 
green. A sudden rocky rise, clothed with native cypress, honey-suckle 
(banksia), she-oak (casuarina), and here and there a stunted gum." 
And now for a contrast : — 
