THE LYRE BIRD. 
20T 
nest, together with mosses, lichens, and similar substances. 
Withered leaves are generally worked into the nest, and I have 
more than once found specimens which were almost wholly 
composed of leaves. The size of the nest is wonderfully large, 
when the dimensions of the tiny architect are taken into con- 
sideration, and however large may be the hole in which the 
Wren makes its nest, it is nearly filled with the mass of grass, 
leaves, and wool which the Wren has conveyed into it. The 
interior of the nest is always warmly lined, sometimes with 
feathers, and sometimes with hair, and in the lining are gene- 
rally some six or eight little eggs, nearly white, and covered 
with very minute red specks. 
As is the case with the redbreast and one or two of our more 
familiar birds, the Wren will sometimes enter houses and build 
its nest in curtains, on shelves, and similar localities, while the 
interior of a disused greenhouse or stable loft is nearly sure to 
be tenanted by a Wren and its little brood. 
Australia is proverbially a strange land, and it is only in 
Australia, or perhaps in Madagascar, that we should look for a 
wren measuring some seventeen inches in height. Such a bird 
is, however, to be found in Australia, and is known to the natives 
by the name of Bullen-Bullen, and to the Europeans as the 
Lyre Bird (. Menura superbd). It is remarkable by the way that 
the genius of the Australian language causes many words to be 
doubled, so that the natives speak of a well-known Australian 
marsupial as the devil-devil, and of a domestic servant as Jacky- 
Jacky. 
New South Wales is the chosen country of the Lyre Bird, 
which is rather local, and affects certain defined boundaries. Its 
native name is derived from its peculiar cry, and the popular 
European name is given to the bird on account of the shape of 
its tail feathers. The two exterior feathers are curved in such a 
manner, that when the whole tail is spread they exactly re- 
semble the horns of an ancient lyre, the place of the strings 
being taken by a number of slender decomposed feathers which 
rise from the centre of the tail. When the bird is quietly at 
