THE LYRE BIRD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE LYRE BIRD.

A MASTER OF MIMICRY.

IN the ranges of Victoria and the rain forests of the eastern coast of Australia lives one of the world's most famous feathered songsters—the lyre bird. Thousands of people—Australians and visitors from abroad—travel to the haunts of these birds every year to watch and hear their amazing performances. The bird owes its name to resemblance his tail bears to the lyre, a stringed instrument played by the musicians of ancient Greece. This tail, the special ornament of thd male, when furled is dark brown like that of the female. During the "dance" he displays its full beauty. There are twelve filmy feathers, almost black on the upper surface . and silvery white beneath. The two large outer ones are white, barred with chestnut on their under-surfacea and have curled black lips. From the centre of the fan rise two wire-like plumes. As he dances the tail is raised upright and then allowed to fall forward, completely veiling the performer. Sometimes he shakes hia whole tail violently; at others only the inner feathers tremble and shiver. Then he will advance sideways with rhythmic step or sway from one foot to the other. Suddenly . the time becomes faster as he whirls and dashes about. All the while he accompanies his movements with song and mimicry. Winter is the singing season of the lyre bird, for it is then that these birds mate and nest. At the beginning of winter the male prepares his "mounds" as the circular places wherein he gives his performances are called. After September, when he moults his tail, the mounds are neglected and become overgrown till next year. The female attends to nest-building and she rears the single chick. The lyre bird's song can be heard for a quarter of a mile distant, and the visitor will have 110 difficulty in coming close enough to watch, provided he takes care not to step on a twig or rustle the undergrowth. The lyre bird not only imitates the songs of other bush birds, but elaborates and combines them in a most fascinating and impressive manner. He will give renderings of the songs of the Australian thrush, the black cockatoo, the butcher bird and the honey-eater. At times a rippling series of notes will suggest the distant laughter of kookaburras, at others the subdued twittering of tiny scrub wrens, and again the cries of a flock of parrots. It is only of recent years that public interest in the lyre bird has been aroused. The motion picture and the radio have been chiefly responsible for increasing his popularity. The songs of one particularbird, who has occupied the same area in the Sherbrooke Reserve, Dandenong Ranges, for six years, have been broadcast all over the Commonwealth. Records too have been made. And all this beauty of melody and movement is often displayed against a background of rain-drenched iorest and grey mist.