hues of different shades with which they are
richly coloured on the head and long tail-feathers change and flash
in the sunlight with every slightest movement.

Not all so brilliant in colour but very delightful to watch are the
fly-catchers. Of these there are no less than twenty-six species, the most
remarkable being the fairy blue-chat, which is brilliantly marked
with different shades of glistening blue, and another which is
strikingly coloured in almost uniform verditer blue. In the very
lowest valleys is found the beautiful paradise fly-catcher, with a
long-pointed black crest, the rest of the plumage white with black
shafts and the tail 14 inches in length. The quickness and agility this
lovely bird displays as it darts and twists and turns in the pursuit of
butterflies in their uneven dodging flight is one of the marvels of
forest life.

Game-birds are not abundant, but four species of pheasant are found,
of which the largest and handsomest is the moonal, bronze-green
glossed with gold and with a tail of cinnamon red. Sportsmen in the
Himalaya are familiar with the sight of this radiantly-coloured bird
swishing down the mountain-side with apparently the speed and
almost the brilliancy of a flash of lightning. Not so handsome as the
moonal, being small and greyish in colour on the back, is the
blood-pheasant, remarkable for its blood-red streaks on the breast and its
blood-red under-tail-coverts.

Bulbuls are largely represented and may be seen in large flocks
among the scrub--delightful, homely little birds with bright and
cheery ways which specially attract us. Not very common, but to be
found in the lower part of the valley, is the beautiful fairy bluebird, a
large bird 10 inches in length with a glistening cobalt-blue upper
part and velvet black beneath. The European cuckoo may be heard
all day long in the season from about 3,500 feet upwards. And about
a dozen other cuckoos visit Sikkim, of which by far the prettiest is
the emerald cuckoo, a small bird not much more than 6 inches long,
of a brilliant emerald green with golden sheen, and below white
barred with shining green. Kingfishers are not numerous, as fish are
scarce. But there are four species, of which the prettiest is a lovely
little creature about 5 inches long, coloured with rufous, white, and
different shades of blue and violet.

These are only a few of the most striking birds; but to give an idea
of the variety of other birds which may be f