324 THE LYRE BIRD. 
almost magie pencil, we are largely indebted for our knowl- 
edge of Australian birds. The pictures of both artists are 
so life-like that we might well be pardoned for forgetting 
that we had never heard the musie of their songsters, nor 
beheld the flowering vine where it grew. 
The whole collection of birds, forming the originals of 
Gould's “Birds of Australia," was purchased by Dr. Thomas 
B. Wilson and presented to the Academy of Natural Sci- 
ences in Philadelphia, —a gift to a noble institution of his 
native city, in which America has reason to rejoice. In 
this collection, along with other specimens of the Lyre Bird, 
may be seen that which furnished the half size illustration 
of Gould. It is somewhat faded by time, but otherwise is 
in a good state of preservation. From this bird our artist 
has given the cut heading the present article. 
The bird is about the size of the common fowl. Its gen- 
eral plumage is of a dull leaden, or chocolate brown color, 
Fig. 80. brightened on the wings, chin 
and front part of the throat 
with a reddish tinge, which is 
much richer during the mating 
season. The peculiar beauty of 
the bird, however, lies in its tail, 
which is in perfection only four 
or five months of the year. 
This appendage consists of six- 
teen feathers, twelve of which, 
(icin EM M NS in the engraving, are 
natural size, ' furnished with loose, slender and 
flowing barbs, which are so distant from each other that their 
effect is that of a background of light and elegant tracery. 
Figure 80 shows a section from one of these feathers, the 
barbs, many of which are seven inches in length, having 
been cut away on either side of the central stem. Four 
of these feathers are of a closer texture near the base where 
firmness is required. The two unpiiant middle feathers are, 
