172 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
sure you will guess from the name of the bird—is 
shaped like a lyre, though it is much more beautiful 
than any lyre ever was, even the one that Apollo 
played on. You know, I dare say, what a lyre is, a 
kind of harp with a very graceful shape, curving first 
out and then in, and then out again on each side, and 
with the strings in the centre. Now the Lyre-bird 
has, on each side of its tail, two beautiful, broad 
feathers that curve in this way, and are of a pretty 
chestnut colour, with transparent spaces all the way 
down. These are the two outer tail feathers, and they 
are like the two sides of the lyre—the solid part of 
it which is held in the hand, and which we call the 
framework. Then, for the strings, which, as you 
know, are stretched across the hollow space within 
the framework, not from side to side, but lengthways 
from one end to the other, the Lyre-bird: has a num- 
ber of most beautiful, thin, graceful feathers, more 
graceful and delicate than the strings of any harp. 
Only, instead of being straight, like harp strings, these 
feathers are curved, and droop over to each side in a 
most graceful way, and instead of keeping inside the 
two broad feathers—the sides of the lyre—they come 
a long way past them, and instead of being only 
four, which is the number of strings that a lyre has, 
there are ever so many of them—more than a dozen, 
I feel sure. And if you could see these feathers, and 
