PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
OF QUEElsrSLA^D. 
+ 
THE LYRE BIRD OE AUSTRALIA. 
A paper read before the Queensland Philoso- 
phical Society, by H. C. Rawnsley, Esg., on 
the 4th August, 1863. 
Menura Sttperba. 
THE LYRE-BIRD, OR MOUNTAIN PHEASANT. 
This extraordinary bird, peculiar to Australia, 
which together with the Emeu and Kangaroo, 
are selected as the heraldic bearings and em- 
blems of this country, has given rise to much 
discussion among naturalists ; classed first 
among the Birds of Paradise, and afterwards 
among the Gallinaceous birds, to which it has 
no affinity, but forms, with other genera, a 
family of the Insessorial or Perching birds. So 
little indeed was known respecting it to a very 
late date, that a gentleman who was arranging 
the birds in the museum of an adjoining colony, 
insisted (notwithstanding my relation to him 
of its habits as studied by me in its stronghold 
the Illawarra) in classing it with the Peacocks 
of India, Java, and Ceylon. 
To the eminent naturalist, Mr. Gould, we 
are indebted for placing this bird in its true 
position in the natural system ; it belongs to 
the family of the Wrens. Great indeed is the 
contrast between the common English wren 
and the Lyre-bird, they apparently belong to 
different orders, nevertheless the relationship 
can scarcely be doubted, and when we pass 
from the examination of the English bird to 
some of the splendid species which are natives 
of this continent we are at once struck by the 
extraordinary similarity which exists in the 
character of their plumage and that of the Lyre- 
bird. Take Malurus Cyaneus (Superb Warbler) 
and Malurus Lamberti for instance, found in the 
same bushes as their giant relatives, there are the 
like long silky feathers along the back, en- 
tirely covering the wings at the pleasure of 
the bird, and protecting them from the moisture 
with which the dense vegetation that clothes 
ihe hills and gullies is generally saturated. In 
the tail of the Emeu Wren ( Stipturus malachu- 
rus) there is an approach to the slender feathers 
of that of the menura, while the malurine birds 
like the lyre bird all carry their tails erect, like 
them it has the bristles at the base of the bill, 
similar powers of running and great feebleness 
of flight. The nest and eggs of most birds are 
a good guide to the families to which they 
belong, and those of the menura at once in- 
dicate that of the wren ; the nest is domed 
like that of the malurus. The egg (first 
described by Mr. Gould, in 1859) is 
about the size of that of an ordinary 
fowl, the length being two seven-sixteenth 
inches, and the breadth one thirteen-sixteenth 
inch ; “ it is of a purplish stone color, blotched 
and stained all over with a much darker and 
more olive brown at the larger end, where it is 
is more profusely disposed than on any other 
part of the egg, and forms, in fact, a kind of 
zone.” The menura lays, I think, but one egg. 
The food consists of insects, centipedea, and 
coleoptera and shelled snails, which abound in 
the rotten wood that lies piled to a considerable 
depth in the gullies. It will possibly convey 
some idea of the great power of limbs and 
strength of claws when I state that I found 
