rich crimson blossoms,--the pride of our
conservatories,--sprawl profusely in these gardens; and here the
Bar-tail flaunts all day long sipping the nectar, and picking up myriads
of minute insects which the blossoms attract, and which lodge in the
honeyed recesses.

But it is time that the reader should know what sort of a bird this
Bar-tailed Comet is. Attend, then, while I describe his ball-dress, more
lustrous than any fair lady ever wore at Almack's. The head, neck, upper
part of the back, and a considerable portion of the under surface, are
light green, with reflections of burnished gold on the cheeks and
forehead. The lower back is of a deep crimson. The throat flames like an
emerald. The tail is the chief feature, the feathers being broad, and
greatly lengthened, in regular graduation from the central ones to the
outmost pair, which are double the length of the entire bird besides.
The form of the tail is widely forked, its outline having a double
curve, somewhat lyre-shaped. The tail-coverts are ruddy brown; and the
feathers themselves are of the richest and most glowing fire-colour,
incomparably lustrous; each feather being broadly tipped with velvety
black. The graduation of the feathers throws these terminal black tips
to a considerable distance from each other, and their alternation with
the intermediate spaces of the fiery glow has an inconceivably charming
effect, as the bird makes its rapid evolutions through the air, and
whisks about among the flowers, with a velocity which the eye of the
beholder can scarcely follow. It is very fond of certain long
trumpet-shaped pendent blossoms, into which it penetrates so far, that
nothing of it can be seen except the tips of its radiant forked tail
projecting from the tube.

Another family of birds that is conspicuous for gorgeous beauty is that
of the Pheasants. Our own familiar species, which is said to have been
brought long ages ago from the banks of the Phasis in Colchis, by Jason
in the Argo,--

"Argiva primum sum transportata carina,"[209]--

is a very splendid bird, and is well painted in a few lines by
Pope;--who speaks of his

"Glossy varying dyes,
His purple crest and scarlet-circled eyes;
The vivid green his shining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold."[210]

But besides this, there are Indian and Chinese species which excel it in
glory. There are the richly-pen