10 
WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
the lyre bird ( Menura superba). 
Professor’s Australian Hunter-friend who told 
us in the last Bulletin about the Black Swan now 
discourses as graphically upon 
YE LYRE BIRD. 
HYS HOME AND IIYS HABITS; — TAKEN BY KYMSELF. 
YE LYRE BIRD. 
I am the bird which none can tame, 
Roaming the wild woods free. 
In the bright land of golden fame, 
Beyond the great South Sea. 
A bird of high renown am I, 
For feats of mimic minstrelsie, 
Under the Greenwood tree. 
Though plain my plumes and short my wings, 
My tail all must admire: 
That silvered harp of many strings, 
Self-strung with softest wire, 
It came direct from fairy-land, 
A gift from fair Titania’s hand 
To my ancestral sire. 
Hys Home. 
Far from the busy haunts of men, 
By virgin forest bound; 
Deep down in some primeval glen, 
My dome-shaped nest is found. 
And there in valley and on hill, 
By river, creek and rippling rill 
I rear my “music-mound.” 
There in the joy of freedom’s state, 
I climb the mountain side, 
Where bosky scrubs and thickets great, 
Spread round me far and wide, 
And glittering in the sunlit sky, 
Majestic Gum trees! towering high 
Are seen in all their pride. 
There too, with stealthy step I creep, 
Along the dark ravine, 
Where drooping ferns sad vigils keep 
Within a cloister green. 
And, save the bell bird’s ringing call, 
Beside the murmuring waterfall, 
Deep silence reigns supreme. 
Hys Habits. 
When moon and stars that rule the night, 
Pale in the morning gray, 
And hill, and vale, and stream grow bright 
Beneath the suns first ray, 
Like my fair ancestor of old, 
My gleaming Lyi’e I then unfold 
To hail the King of day. 
And mounting on my music seat, 
I fill the dewy air, 
With strains so strong, so full, so sweet, 
So varied and so rare! 
You would believe all birds of song, 
That to my native wilds belong, 
Were holding concert there. 
I mock each bush-bird one by one, 
I dance both jig and reel, 
And when my “merrie chaunt” is done, 
I close my harp and steal 
From the bright presence of the sun, 
Beneath the tangled scrub and run 
To get my morning meal. 
Then, ever watchful as I go, 
For sign of man or dog, 
I wander all day to and fro, 
In search of worm and frog, 
And insect and whate’er is found 
Secreted in soft, sodden ground, 
Or on moss-covered log, 
And show me now the forest fowl, 
If a ny such there be, 
Can mock the wild dog’s dismal howl. 
Or chaunt a stave with me! 
0 f fleeter foot, of keener eye, 
A bug to chase or foe to spy, 
And dodge behind a tree. 
Oft and again my Lyre I spread, 
By music’s soul possessed, 
And when the sun his rosy bed 
Ts making in the west, 
My even song borne on the breeze, 
Floats gaily through the forest trees, 
Ere I too take my rest. 
While yet the last note’s dying fall, 
Still lingers in the glade, 
1 seek the nearest gum-tree tall. 
Within the darksome shade. 
And mounting up from bough to bough, 
Soon gain my roosting height, 
From which exalted place I now 
Bid all a fair good night. 
Having finished his lyric (!) description, our 
correspondent further continues as follows: 
The mountainous ranges of Westernport and 
Gippsland, clothed and surrounded as they are 
with almost impenetrable scrub, and the heads 
of the various ravines, creeks and small rivers 
to which the above form the watershed, are, in 
so far as Victoria is concerned, the principal 
home of the Lyre Bird. 
The bird has received its name, as every one 
knows, from the peculiar formation and shape of 
its tail. The 12 feathers which form the body of 
the tail are bordered on either side by a broad 
convex feather, which, curving first outward, 
then inward and then out again, terminates in a 
round eye, and thus exactly imitates the frame- 
work of the ancient Lyre. The average length 
of a full tail on its first completion is about 2 ft., 
the broad feathers being then about 3^ 
inches wide. These may increase to 3i inches, 
and the length of the tail to 2 ft. 6 inches in sub- 
sequent years. 
The breeding season of the Lyre Bird ranges 
from May to August. At all other times these 
birds, however numerous they may be, are com- 
paratively silent, and beyond a few chirps now 
and then', they exhibit little sign of their presence. 
About the end of April they begin to pair — the 
earliest in this respect of all Australian birds, — 
and then it is that the males commence to scratch 
up those small rounded tumuli which are locally 
known as the Lyre Bird’s “heaps;” but which I 
have characterized as his “music mounds,” since it 
is on one of those little mounds that the male, du- 
ring the breeding season, gives those fine exhibi- 
tions of “mimic minstrelsie” which must be heard 
to be fully appreciated. 
During the breeding season, each male bird has 
his own individual beat or run: within its limits 
he scratchesup his own particular mounds, and 
somewhere within its circumference will be found 
his “dome-shaped nest.” The number of heaps 
each male indulges in appears to be regulated 
solely by his own fancy— eight or nine is the av- 
erage number. Their size also varies, the largest 
being about 10 or 12 feet in circumference at the 
base, which is a perfect circle, and rising to a 
height of from 18 inches to 2 feet, in the shape 
of a flattened cone. 
It is at sunrise on a winter’s morning that the 
Lyre Bird gives strongest proof of his talent as a 
“mimic minstrel.” Having cautiously approached 
his mound, although you see nothing, you will 
hear loudly enough the notes of an exquisitely 
tuned piccolo flute being played somewhere in 
your 1 vicinity. While peering carefully round 
for the player, smack will go the call of the 
“Coach Whip” right behind your back, and ere 
you can turn to front him, you will be started by 
a whole mob of Lories, apparently having a free 
fight just above your head. Next will be heard 
the soft musical notes of the Bower Bird on your 
right and the harsher ones of the Jay on your 
left, while to the notes of these various birds an 
accompaniment, or interlude will be kept up of 
flute and castanets. 
When a fortunate position permits a fair view 
of the performer, it will then be seen that the 
bird, when in the ecstasy of song, is in a stooping 
position, with tail fully spread and lying at an 
acute angle along the back, while li'is head is 
thrown upward and backward, as though he were 
admiring the glitter of his harp. 
The nest of the Lyre Bird is nearly always built 
on the bank of one of the numerous ravines with 
which the ranges abound. It is composed of dry 
sticks, the top arched over and covered with the 
same material. The entrance is by a hole placed 
at about two-thirds the height of the nest, and is 
very small considering the size of the birds. The 
nest is lined with soft, silky feathers from the 
back of the female, and in it she deposits one 
egg — never more,— about the size of a bantam’s 
and of a uniform greenish or violet tint. The 
male bird appears to leave all family duties en- 
tirely to the female, and is never seen in the vi- 
cinity of the nest at any time. He is, in fact, the 
most shy, as well as sly bird in the Australian 
bush, and can seldom be approached except 
when fully engaged on his music mound. 
The food of the Lyre Bird consists principally 
of larvae of insects, ants, worms, frogs and small 
reptiles, found in the soft sodden ground and rot- 
ten logs of the ever damp ravines which these 
birds frequent. 
The cock Lyre Bird always seeks the tallest 
tree lie can find in his neighborhood for a roosting 
place. Having but limited power of flight, he 
generally reaches the lower limbs of this forest 
giant by using the boughs of some adjoining tree 
of smaller growth as a ladder. In the morning, 
mounting high up in his roosting tree, he sails to 
the ground with outspread wings and streaming 
tail, like a Flying Phalanger. 
Many attempts have been made to acclimate 
this most interesting bird, thus far without suc- 
cess, as he apparently cannot exist apart from his 
native scrub and the peculiar food which he 
there obtains. And should he be introduced into 
other lands, he might then, among more formi- 
dable competitors, lose the high prestige he now 
enjoys as a mocking bird. In his own sunny land 
lie is, par excellence , the chief musician, and the 
bright and graceful Harp he carries is but a fit 
emblem of his own bright and excelling powers 
as a minstrel. 
A “ Bushman.” 
Alaskan Birds. 
We have recently received from a correspon- 
dent in Alaska a large series of the birds of that 
region. These are all carefully made skins and 
in fine condition, including 
Passerculus savanna, 
Pinicola eneucleator, 
Corvus corax, 
O’orvus caurinus, 
Pica hudsonica, 
Ceryle alcyon, 
Surnia ulula var. hudsonica, 
Brachyotus palustris, 
Buteo swainsoni, 
Archibuteo sancti johannis, 
Astur atricapillus, 
Falco islandicus, 
Halisetus leucoceplialus, 
Lagopus albus, 
Squatarola lielvetica, 
Totan us melanoleucus, 
Numenius liudsonicus, 
Chaulelasmus streperus, 
Fulix marila, 
Histrionicus torquatus, 
Harelda glacialis, 
Somateria spectabilis, 
Somateria stelleri, 
Bucephala islandica, 
Bucephala albeola, 
Oidemia americana, 
Oidemia perspicillata, 
Graculus penicillatus, 
Graculus violaceus, 
Larus glaucescens, 
Larus canus var. brachyrhynchus, 
Chemniscus cirrhata, 
Brachyrliamphus marmoratus, 
Uria columba, and a number of other 
species. 
