The bower birds. The extraordinary bower bird is one of the most fascinating of the birds which Gould observed during his Australian expedition of 1838 to 1840. The "bowers" which it builds as settings for courtship displays were for some years believed to be structures built by Australian aborigines as cradles or playpens for their children.
Painting by John Gould of the Spotted Bower Bird. Gift of Gordon C. Sauer. This double-page painting may have been used for transfer to the lithographic stone. Many of its lines are cut through the paper as if by an etching needle, one of the methods known to have been used in 19th century lithography for transfer of the image from drawing to stone. Surprisingly enough, the actual methods used by practitioners of this art are no longer clearly known. The great number of different stages of the process in the Spencer collection of Gould offers a significant opportunity to the researcher for rediscovery of the details of the process.
Hand-colored lithographic print of the same bird. In The Birds of Australia, vol. 4, plate 8.
Tracing on tissue of a single-page version of the same plate, unpublished. The various elements of the picture have been traced, moved closer together, and certain relationships altered.
Painting by W. Hart of another bower bird, Chlamydodera occipitalis.

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