Menura Superba. Lyre-Bird.

Colour lithograph of the Lyre Bird from Broinowski’s, Birds of Australia, one of the three most important C19th studies of Australian ornithology.

Modern binomial name: Menura novae hollandiae
First described: Thomas Davies 1800
Distribution: VIC, NSW, QLD and introduced to Tasmania.

 The Lyre Bird was first sighted November 1797 by a an ex-convict who lived with the Aborigines after his term had expired. It was first caught on 26th January 1798 and was described by Thomas Davies 4th November 1800 to the Linnean Society of London.

1797 First sighting. An ex-convict who lived with Aboriginals after his term expired in 1792, said that there was in the bush near Sydney, “a bird of the pheasant species’. Near Sydney, John Wilson (Barrington 1802)

1798 First recorded sighting We saw nothing strange except a few rock kangaroos with long black brush tails, and two pheasants which we could not get a shot at. Nepean, John Price (Historical Records NSW, 3 Appendix C.)

1798 First capture Here I shot a bird about the size of a Pheasant, but the tail of it very much resembles a Peacock, with large long feathers which are white, orange, and lead colour, and black at the ends; its body betwixt a brown and green, brown under his neck and black upon his head. Black legs and very long claws. Near Bargo, John Price (Historical Records NSW, 3 Appendix C.)

1798 Mimicry of the Lyrebird They sing for two hours in the morning, beginning from the time when they quit the valley, until they attain the summit of the hill; where they scrape together a small hillock, on which they stand, with their tail spread over them, imitating successively the note of every bird known in the country. South-west of Sydney David Collins (An account of the English Colony…)

1800 Scientific description The total length of this singular bird from the point of the bill to the end of the broad tail feathers is 43 inches; 25 of which are in the tail alone. The bill rather exceeds an inch in length, is strong, formed much like that of a peacock… Blackheath, Thomas Davies. (Transactions of the Linnean Society of London)