THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
of Melbourne^ and lie in mountains which are covered with huge gum forests 
and have their sides serrated with deep impenetrable guUies. It is in these 
places that the Lyre-Bird Hves. It is often called ‘ Bulu bulu,’ which is 
the native name for it. It is a very valuable bird, as it eats many insects 
in the thick midergrowths where other birds do not go, and it is said to 
benefit many crops. It has been truly called the ‘ Mocking Bird of 
Austraha.’ Nothing can equal it in its powers of mimicry : birds such 
as Laughing Jackasses, Coachwhips, and many others such as Parrots on 
the wing are imitated to perfection. The ring of the selector’s axe, the 
barking of a dog, the whizzing, musical sound of the circular saw heard 
in the big timber country are also repeated by this marvellous bird. In 
short, there is hardly any noise in the bush that he cannot imitate. He 
has even been heard to imitate the grmiting of the Koala or Native Bear. 
In early August 1905, six of us, members of the Bird Observers’ Club, 
viz., Messrs. A. J. and A. G. Campbell, F. and R. Godfrey, J. M. Thomson 
and myseh went for a week-end up to Gembrook. We left Melbourne 
on the Saturday evening’s train and arrived at Gembrook, about 1,050 ft. 
up in the Dandenong Ranges at about 10 p.m. We had a four or five 
mile trudge in the wet, Mr. A. G. Campbell carrying a hurricane lamp. 
Notwithstanding the wet and treading in much water we arrived at a 
small house in a cleared portion, and camped there all night. It rained 
heavily all night, and we all thought that our ‘ Lyre-Bird ’ excursion was 
to be spoilt. However, about 8 a.m. next mornmg it stopped raining 
and the sun came out. We packed our lunches on our backs and struck 
into the thickest parts, and very soon heard the beautiful clear notes of 
the Lyre-Bird echoing above everything else. Numerous gullies exist, very 
dark and with thick undergrowth, water generally trickling along a stony 
bed covered with tree ferns. Each pair of Lyre-Birds seems to have 
their special guUy. Each stump and thick place was carefully examined, 
and at last I found on top of a stump, about three and a hah feet from 
the ground, a nest. In it was one egg, but it had a hole in it from 
which the chick had emerged. Another nest was fomid, but I think we 
were too late, as in parts of Gippsland this bird starts to build in the 
end of May or beginning of June. The nest is really a double nest. 
I found that the interior nest consisted of pieces off the trunks of tree 
ferns and small roots interwoven with leaves and moss. The interior was 
lined with feathers. The outer nest was made of thicker twigs, and these 
form a roof for the mner nest. On the front of the nest, which is oval 
in shape, a small platform of twigs is built. On top of the whole 
structure old fronds of ferns and other decayed matter were thrown about. 
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