Editing Lyrebird (section)

=== Painting by John Gould ===
[[File:Lyre bird.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|[[John Gould]]'s early 1800s painting of a [[superb lyrebird]] specimen at the [[British Museum]]]]

The lyrebird is so called because the male bird has a spectacular tail, consisting of 16 highly modified [[feather]]s (two long slender ''lyrates'' at the centre of the plume, two broader ''medians'' on the outside edges and twelve ''filamentaries'' arrayed between them), which was originally thought to resemble a [[lyre]]. This happened when a superb lyrebird specimen (which had been taken from Australia to [[England]] during the early 19th century) was prepared for display at the [[British Museum]] by a [[taxidermy|taxidermist]] who had never seen a live lyrebird. The taxidermist mistakenly thought that the tail would resemble a lyre, and that the tail would be held in a similar way to that of a [[peacock]] during [[courtship display]], and so he arranged the feathers in this way. Later, [[John Gould]] (who had also never seen a live lyrebird), painted the lyrebird from the British Museum specimen.

The male lyrebird's tail is not held as in John Gould's painting. Instead, the male lyrebird's tail is fanned over the lyrebird during courtship display, with the tail completely covering his head and back—as can be seen in the image in the "[[#Breeding|breeding]]" section of this page, and also the image of the 10-cent coin, where the superb lyrebird's tail (in courtship display) is portrayed accurately.