Australian logrunner one of only three species within the single Orthonyx genus; the other two are the chowcilla ("Orthonyx spaldingii") from northern Queensland and the New Guinean logrunner ("Orthonyx novaeguineae") from Papua New Guinea. Logrunners as a group are characterised within their group by their distinctive tail feathers where the rachis (or central shafts) of the tail feathers protrude and are stiffened. The broad tail of the bird is less than four inches (10 cm) in length and the strong protruding rachis at the ends of the tail feathers are almost void of the usual barbs, giving the feather the appearance of
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire phone call from Herb Cohen, Frank Zappa's former manager, telling him that he had located dozens of boxes labelled "Bird on a Wire." Machat had died in 1988, but his son Steven obtained and delivered all 296 film canisters to Palmer. Since the negative was not available, Palmer used the soundtrack to reconstruct the film to its original form. The film stock was in fragile condition, some disintegrating to the touch. Restoring the film required piecing together the film from 3,000 fragments. The film was then sent to Cohen, who wrote back that he was "glad the problem has been