The Lore of the Lyrebird

Ambrose Pratt

Description

Lyrebirds are native to Australia and were only scientifically documented in the late 18th Century and are still the subject of exhaustive study to this day. Their amazing calls and exceptional skills of mimicry have led them to becoming the subject of many tall tales, this is a well written guide to the real Lyrebird by a man who has been into the wild outback to find them. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Sujets

• Folklore
• Mythology
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 19 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781447480846
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE LORE of the LYREBIRD
AMBROSE PRATT, C.M.Z.S.
Vice-President and aforetime (for 15 years) President of the Royal Zoological Society of Victoria Member Zoological Board of Victoria
With a Foreword by the late Sir Colin Mackenzie
Photograph by F. Lewis .
James.
PREFACE

FOR the pictures that adorn this little volume I am indebted to Miss Una Riall, of Geelong; to Mr. F. Lewis, Chief Inspector of Fisheries and Game, Victoria; to the late Mr. Tom Tregellas, Mr. Charles Barrett, and Mr. R. T. Littlejohns, the well-known Victorian ornithologists; and to Mr. John Kauffmann, the eminent Landscape Photographer. Nature-lovers will hardly need to be informed that a successful photographic study of the Menura cannot be obtained without an immense outlay of patience and pertinacity, combined with high technical skill. Not one of the pictures herein reproduced could have been achieved except by an artist versed by loving experience in the habits of the birds portrayed.
I desire to express my grateful appreciation of the assistance accorded me by Mr. R. T. Littlejohns and the late Mr. Tom Tregellas in the correlation, elucidation and interpretation alike of old, and recently, established facts concerning the life history and habits of the Menura; also to thank Mr. A. G. Campbell, Past-President of the R.A.O.U., for much valuable advice.
It is pleasing to record that the Appeal printed in the earlier editions and now reprinted as an Appendix did not long pass unheeded by the people of Victoria. In June, 1933, a great public meeting, convoked by the State Government, was held in Melbourne, which inaugurated the League of Youth of Australia to protect the indigenous flora and fauna of the Commonwealth, in close accord with the terms of the Appeal. All the older Nature Societies of Victoria and most of the public bodies interested in promoting culture and social welfare affiliated with the League-which, helped by its affiliations (also by the Victorian Teachers Union) eventually succeeded in securing the addition of special instruction on the preservation of wild life to the curriculum of the public schools of the State. The effect of the League s activities on public opinion has been so pronounced that it is no longer necessary to agitate for the protection of the Lyre Bird from human spoilers, and the Victorian Menura to-day is as safe in his mountain home as though defended by battalions of bayonets.
A MBROSE P RATT .
CONTENTS

P REFACE TO F OURTH E DITION
I NTRODUCTION
I A M IRACLE OF THE D ANDENONGS
II T HE L ORE OF THE L YREBIRD
III A B IRD U NIQUE
IV M ENURA S I NTELLIGENCE
A S UMMARY
A PPENDIX -A N A PPEAL
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

James
Menura Stamping Ground
James Visits His Friend
James Rears His Crest
James Taps on the Pane to Announce His Arrival
James is Facing the Camera and Singing Behind His Curtain of Plumage
A Song at Dawn
James Sings at Noon
A Female Lyrebird Approaching Her Nest Carrying Food for Her Chick
A Lyrebird s Nest-with Egg
A Lyrebird Haunt in Sherbrook Forest
Lyrebird Chick at Entrance to Nest
James Displaying on His Platform, June, 1934
The Curtain of Song
Bushland-Typical Lyrebird Country
Mrs. Wilkinson on Her Verandah
The View from James s Platform
Displaying in July
Shimmering Plumage
On a Mound Amidst the Bracken
A Lyrebird s Playground in Sherbrook Forest
INTRODUCTION
THE advent of the First Fleet under Captain Phillip at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788, meant not only the acquisition of a continent, but also the responsibility, on behalf of the rest of the world, of the protection of primitive aboriginal peoples and of a unique fauna and flora. To modern man was suddenly presented the opportunity of studying at close hand the life of the distant past. In Australia, alone of the whole world, exist those simple types of animals a study of which is absolutely essential for a correct understanding of the complexities of the human body. Our fauna represents the survival results of functional struggles which have extended over vast periods of time. Each member constitutes a historical document, which, rightly studied, may be compared to the plan of a battlefield. On the date of landing began the investigation of our primitive fauna from the point of view of its importance to health and disease. The senior surgeon of the First Fleet was Dr. John White, who became Surgeon-General of the Settlement, and founded at Sydney Cove the first Australian Hospital, in which, in his own words, more pitiable objects were perhaps never seen. White was a friend of John Hunter, and so had a lively interest in comparative anatomy, for Hunter was the father of modern surgery and the founder of the Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Specimens forwarded to London by White were anatomically examined by Hunter. John Hunter unfortunately died in 1793, a few years before the introduction to science of the two most primitive mammals known-the platypus and the echidna.
A scientific study of the Australian monotremes and the marsupials is absorbingly interesting besides being most illuminating to comparative anatomists in their work on the human body. To study disease of an organ we must first try to know its function, and it is in these primitive Australian types that we can truly know the function of structures; for they have lived in the same environment, on the same food, and in the same manner for untold ages-free from all the modern diseases to which man has become a victim.
Realising the value, medically, of these key-animals, the Commonwealth Government has established the Australian Institute of Anatomy in Canberra. This building, besides being a centre for research into problems of health and disease, contains Museums for the preservation of specimens of our fast-disappearing fauna which will be available to future generations of scientists. The Institute holds the same relation to the National Government of Australia as the Smithsonian Institution at Washington does to the Government of the United States, and the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London to the British Government.
It is the bounden duty of everyone to record and preserve any observations which will be of interest and of value to future generations of Australians, and Mr. Ambrose Pratt, President of the Royal Zoological Society of Victoria, is to be commended for his valuable work dealing with the Lyrebird. Birds probably represent the most highly specialised class of vertebrates, and exhibit, in particular, a constancy in their mode of generation. The fore-limbs, as wings, have become modified for flight with the loss of the opposable thumb, so characteristic a feature of the highest mammals. A study of the wings is of assistance to problems of adaptability, the mode of disappearance of bodily structures, and the means by which strength of bone is combined with lightness. In the bird the female genital organs are now represented by one ovary and one oviduct instead of two, as in mammals and reptiles. The bird may truly be said, anatomically, to have entered a cul-de-sac. Nevertheless, experiments such as these on the part of Nature throw light on the relative functional value of structures in the human body.
Mr. Ambrose Pratt has presented the world with a charming picture of bird-life in a primeval setting. He has proffered us his scientific observations in a delightful style, and their value is enhanced by the fact that these investigations have been carried out on our Australian avian aristocrat, the Lyrebird; for, according to no less an authority than Gregory Mathews, during a period of sixty years there has been little scientific advancement with regard to the economics of such a very peculiar avian form. It is to be hoped that the advancing tide of civilisation will not be too ruthless for these wonder birds.
C OLIN M ACKENZIE .
Canberra .
C HAPTER O NE
A MIRACLE OF THE DANDENONGS
ONE of the most beautiful and rare and probably the most intelligent of all the world s wild creatures is that incomparable artist, the Lyrebird ( Menura nov -hollandi ). This bird exclusively belongs to Australia and inhabits only a single narrow tract of our great continent. It makes its home in the densely timbered mountains that fledge the eastern and south-eastern seaboards.
More than sixty per centum of the population of Australia is settled in the States along whose littoral the Lyrebird ranges, but, although thousands of people have heard the Menura singing and calling in the forests, very few, even yet, have been privileged to see a living specimen. The bird is extremely shy and almost incredibly elusive. John Gould, the father of Australian ornithology, spent weeks in mountain gullies in New South Wales (well known to be the haunt of Lyrebirds), in the hope of studying them in their native state. He was often delectably entertained by the melodious singing, but he regretfully records his futile efforts to catch more than a passing glimpse of one. Many ornithologists since Gould have had a like experience, and until recently the world s knowledge of the character, disposition and habits of this wonderful bird was derived from the accounts of bushmen and the notes and recollections of accidental and often untrained observers. It is true that many Lyrebirds have been snared alive and subjected to examination by experienced naturalists, but as they invariably mope in captivity (unless captured when very young) and quickly perish, little has been gained from these experiments. It is not an exaggeration to say that the lore of the living Lyrebird has been enriched with a greater volume of exact and authentic information during the past eight years than was collated during the preceding century.
The greater part of this swift and striking enlargement of our knowledge of the Menura is due to the development of an amazing friendship between