lyrebat

Lyre. Zool .: Mega derma lyra , a bat of the family Rhino lop hide (Nycteride). Habitat, continental India and Ceylon; length, three-and-a-half inches; slaty blue in color, paler beneath; ears about half the length of the head and body. It is carnivorous, and, in addition to insects, feeds on frogs, fish, and even smaller bats. lyre-bird, s. Ornith.: Menura superb a (or nova - holland i a ), an insectivorous Australian bird, placed by Pro fe or Huxley in his Coracomorphæ. (In this connection see a paper by Mr. Bartlett, in Proc . Zool . Soc ., 1867, pp. 688, 689). Habitat New South Wales, the southern part of Queensland, and perhaps some parts of the colony of Victoria. The lyrebird is not so large as a hen-pheasant; plumage, sooty brown, relieved by rufous on the chin, throat, some of the wing-feathers, and the tail-coverts. The sixteen rectrices are developed in the male in the extra or dinary fashion that gives the bird its English name. The two exterior have the outer web very narrow, and the inner very broad, and they curve at first outward, then somewhat inward, and near the tip outward again, bending round so as to present a lyre-like form. The middle pair of feathers have the outer web broad, and the inner web very narrow; they cro near their base, and then diverge, bending round forward near the tip. The remaining twelve feathers are thinly furnished with barbs, and present a hair-like appearance. The lyre-bird is becoming rare; and though specimens have been carried to other countries than its own, none have long survived in captivity. lyre-flower, s. Bot.: Dielytra spectabilis. lyre-pheasant, s. [LYRE-BIRD.] lyre-shaped, a. [LYRATE, 2.]