tomed call, and was lost. Collins tried every means to recover it, and after several days search, being near the place where it was lost by his son, and calling it by name, it came creeping to his feet, exhibiting many unabated marks of affection and attachment."

Bewick also mentions a young one, which had been taught to catch fish with so much success, that it would sometimes capture ten salmon in a single day.

The following lines of the poet Somerville, in his "Chase," well depict the habits of the otter:

"Where rages not oppression? where, alas!

Is innocence secure. Rapine and spoil

Haunt even the lowest deeps. Seas have their sharks;
Rivers and ponds enclose the ravenous pike;

He in his turn becomes a prey; on him

Th' amphibious otter feasts. Just is his fate

Deserved; but tyrants know no bounds: nor spears
That bristle on his back, defend the perch

From his wide greedy jaws; nor burnished mail
The yellow carp; nor all his arts can save
The insinuating eel, that hides his head
Beneath the slimy mud; nor yet escapes
The crimson-spotted trout-the river's pride,
And beauty of the stream. Without remorse,
This midnight pillager, raging around,
Insatiate swallows all. The owner mourns
Th' unpeopled rivulet, and gladly hears
The huntsman's early call."

LYRE BIRD.

THIS is a very singular-looking bird, at least its tail, which it carries erect over its back, is very curious; in other respects it is quite plain, being in general appearance not very unlike a moorhen. In New South Wales, where it is common, it is the custom to hang up the tail of the lyre bird in the houses for ornament, and as a curiosity, in the same way that we do that of the peacock in this country.

The following account of our present subject is partly taken from that given by Mr. Gould, the celebrated author of the "Birds of Australia," and other splendid. works in ornithology. He says, "Of all the birds I have ever met with, the menura is far the most shy, and difficult to procure. While among the mountains, I have been surrounded by these birds, pouring forth their loud and liquid calls, for days together, without being able to get a sight of them; and it was only by the most determined perseverance and extreme caution that I was enabled to effect this desirable object, which was rendered more difficult by their often frequenting the almost inaccessible and precipitous sides of gullies and ravines, covered with tangled masses of creepers and umbrageous trees. The cracking of a stick, the rolling down of a small stone, or any other noise, however slight, is sufficient to alarm it; and none but those who have traversed those rugged, hot, and suffocating brushes, can fully understand the excessive labour attendant on the pursuit of the menura.

The lyre bird is of a wandering disposition, and, although

it probably keeps to the same brush, it is constantly engaged in traversing it from one end to the other, from the mountain base to the top of the gullies, whose steep and rugged sides present no obstacle to its long legs. It is also capable of performing extraordinary leaps, and I have heard it stated that it will spring ten feet perpendicularly from the ground. The early morning and the evening are the periods when it is most animated and active.

It may truly be said that the beauty of this bird lies in the plumage of his tail, the new feathers of which appear in February and March, but do not attain their full beauty until June; during these and the four succeeding months, it is in its finest state; after this, the feathers are gradually shed, to be resumed again at the period above stated."

"The menura equals a common pheasant in size, but its limbs are longer in proportion, and its feet much larger; the toes are armed with large arched blunt claws; the head is small; the beak triangular at the base, pointed and compressed at the tip. The tail is modified into a beautiful long plume-like ornament, representing, when erect and expanded, the figure of a lyre, whence the name of lyre bird. The appearance of these feathers, the length of which is about two feet, is peculiarly graceful; their colour is umber brown, but the two outer tail feathers are grey, tipped with black, edged with rufous, and transversely marked on the inner web with transparent triangular bars. The general plumage of the menura is umber brown above, tinged with olive, and merging into rufous on the wings, and also on the throat. The under parts are ashy grey."