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J. Cassidy—Australian Bird-Beauties



Order insessores. Family MENURioiE. Genus menura.


The Lyre-bird is, possibly, the most appropriate bird as an emblem

for Australia of its avifauna.


Its principal habitat is New South Wales and parts of Victoria.

The rough close thickets or brush near mountain or coast both afford

it shelter. The cedar bushes of the Liverpool Range and the mountains

of the Tumat Country are favourite haunts.


The Lyre-bird is very shy and consequently not at all easy to procure.

Travellers in the bush can hear the loud liquid calls of these birds for

days together and all that time never see a glimpse of one.


The birds choose inaccessible places—steep gullies or ravines,

disguised or covered by moss and creepers of great luxuriance and dense

trees. The slightest noise, a falling stone, a crackling stick, alarms

them.


After enduring patience and perseverance the Lyre-bird may some¬

times be seen and occasionally captured. It is of a wandering disposi¬

tion, as distinguished ornithologists testify, traversing the same brush

from one end to the other, from mountain-top to the bottom of the

gullies, whose steep and rugged sides present no obstacle to its long

legs and powerful muscular thighs ; it is also capable of performing

extraordinary leaps. “ When running quickly through the brushes

they carry their tails horizontally.” The tail is a very beautiful affair ;

it is the making of the bird. The upper coverts are tinged with a fine

rufous, shading to blackish brown toward the upper surface, while the

under surface is a silvery grey. Beautiful transparent cross bands of

colour decorate the tail.


In Victoria, Australia, the tail of the Lyre-bird differs from that

of the Lyre-bird of New South Wales which we have described, the

feathers being shorter and the bands stronger and broader. The

aborigines of Yarra Yarra name the bird “ Bullan-Bullan ”.


Nest .—Some naturalists state that the bird uses the same nest for

several years. The feathers lining it closely resemble in colour those

of the egg, so that it is not at all easy to descry the single egg amid the

closely resembling feathers.



