APOLLO AND THE LYRE-BIRD 1'75 
hit it on the tail as it ran away and cut it right off. 
Of course, when the Lyre-bird found that it had no 
tail it was in a terrible state, and it came to Apollo 
and said: ‘‘ It was because I loved your music that I 
tried to imitate it. I failed, no doubt—for who can 
sing as Apollo ?—but still it is a hard price to have 
to pay for my admiration.”” And when Apollo heard 
that, he was so sorry for what he had done, and so 
pleased with the way in which the Lyre-bird had 
explained things, that he said to it: ‘‘ Well, I will 
make amends, and what I give shall be better than 
what I took away. The lyre which I threw at you, you 
shall keep, but it shall be of feathers, and even more 
beautiful than my own. You shall not play on it, 
for none but myself must do that, but you shall 
always be a most musical bird, as you are now, and 
able to imitate any sound that you hear, even my 
own playing. That power I will not take away from 
you, I will even increase it, and from this time forth 
you shall be called the Lyre-bird, in honour of your 
piety and good taste.” 
That is how the Lyre-bird got its tail, and 
why it is, now, a very beautiful, as well as a very 
musical, bird. But what its tail was like before 
Apollo gave it the one it has now, that I cannot tell 
you, for it has never been known to allude to the 
subject, and it would hardly do to ask it. We only 
