Drawing on double-size paper, for double-page plate. Pencil sketch establishing overall design, with careful drawing of the birds with light watercolor shading. Background established very much to the final design, using free watercolor strokes in brown tones. At top of sheet, a short vertical stroke with "straight" (no obvious significance); a few words along lower edge, but illegible from paper loss.

Reverse: rough pencil sketch of a cockatoo(?); notes by Sotheran, bookseller: "Spotted Bower-bird / 798*" and "Preliminary sketch especially done for the plate of the Bower Bird in John Gould's Birds of Australia 'Chlamydera Maculata.'" Previously cited as GS26 or 26 GS. Gould item 375 is a preliminary drawing and 2151 a tracing for a single-page plate, from which the present double-page composition and Gould item 2376 were developed.