NORTHERN LYRE-BIRD. 
Gould then gave some notes by Dr. Stephenson, forwarded to him by 
Dr. Bennett, and better ones by A. A. Leycester, who appears to have been 
the co-worker with Dr. Stephenson on the subject. Leycester’s notes read : 
“These birds hitherto have been found only on the Richmond and Tweed 
Rivers, in the dense brushes which clothe the mountains in these districts; 
and what is most remarkable, though similar mountains and brushes exist on the 
rivers both north and south of these rivers, yet the M. alberti is never to be 
found m them, their boimdary appearing to be limited to a patch of country 
not wider than eighty by sixty miles. The habits of Menura alberti are very 
similar to M. superba. Having seen and watched both on their playgrounds 
I find the M. alberti is far superior in its powers of mocking and imitating 
the cries and songs of others of the feathered race to the M. superba ; its own 
peculiar cry or song is also different, being of a much louder and fuUer tone. 
I once listened to one of these birds that had taken up its quarters within two 
hundred yards of a sawyer’s hut, and he had made himself perfect with all 
the noises of the sawyer’s homestead — ^the crowmg of the cocks, the cackling 
of the hens, and the barking and howling of the dogs, and even the painful 
screeching of the sharpening or filing of the saw. I have never seen more than 
a pair together. Each bird appears to have its own walk or boundary and 
never to infringe on the other’s ground ; for I have heard them day after day 
in the same place and seldom nearer than a quarter of a mile to each other. 
Whilst singing, they spread their tails over their heads like a Peacock, and 
droop their wings to the groxmd, and at the same time scratch and peck up 
the earth. They sing mornings and evenings, and more so in winter than at 
any other time. The young cocks do not sing until they get their full tads, 
which, I fancy, is not until the fourth year, having shot them in four different 
stages ; the two centre, curved feathers are the last to make their appearance. 
They live entirely upon small insects, principally beetles. Their flesh is not 
eatable, being dark, dry and tough, and quite unhke other birds. They 
commence building their nests in May, lay in J une and have young in July. They 
generally place their nests on the side of some steep rock, where there is 
sufficient room to form a lodgment, so that no animals or vermin can approach. 
The nest is constructed of small sticks, interwoven with moss and fibres of 
roots, the inside being lined with the skeleton leaf of the parasitical tree fern, 
resembling horse hair and covered in with the entrance on the side. The 
single egg laid is of a very dark colour, appearing as if it had been blotched 
over with ink. The young bird for the first month is covered with down, and 
remains in the nest about six weeks before it takes its departure. Aboriginal 
name, ‘ Colwin.’ ” 
Nothing has since been added, .so that sixty years have now elapsed 
411 
