cilled Gold and Silver Pheasants, and the
noble Reeves' and Amherst Pheasants, with their extraordinary
long-barred tail plumes. The last named is a bird of unusual
magnificence.

Then there is the splendid Fire-back of Sumatra and Java, which is
adorned with a crest of slender stalked feathers, each expanding into a
disk with spreading barbs. The head, neck, breast, and belly of this
rare bird are of deep steel-blue, very lustrous, the lower part of the
back fiery orange-red or flame-colour, varying in intensity according to
the incidence of the light, and passing like a zone of fire round the
body, though less brilliant on the abdomen; the rump and tail-coverts
broad and truncate, bluish-green, each feather tipped by a paler bar.
The tail is erect and arched, somewhat like that of the common cock,
its middle feathers are pure white, and all the rest black, with green
reflections. The legs and feet, which are scarlet, and the skin of the
face, purple, complete the toilet of this magnificent oriental.

What shall we say to the Argus Pheasant, the bird of Malacca with the
magnificent pinions? How fine a sight must it be to see this noble fowl
displaying his coxcombery in the presence of his admiring hens,
strutting to and fro with his long tail feathers spread and erected, and
his broad wings expanded and scraping the ground far on each side! The
colours, it is true, are sober browns, varied with black and white; but
how exquisitely are these arranged! Perhaps no brilliancy of tint would
more charm the eye than the row of ocellated spots,--each a dark
circular disk surrounded by concentric circles,--that runs along the
centre of each of the enormously-developed secondary wing-quills.

To come back to colour and metallic refulgence. We must not overlook the
Monal, or Scaly Impeyan of the Himalaya chain. This fowl, which is
little less than a turkey, looks as if clothed in scale armour of
iridescent metal, of which the specific hues can scarcely be indicated,
so changeable are they; green, steel-blue, crimson, purple, and
golden-bronze,--all of the utmost intensity of colour, and of dazzling
refulgence, adorn this bird, set off by a broad square patch of pure
white in the middle of the back, while the crown of the head carries a
drooping crest of naked-shafted, broad-tipped, green feathers. This
splendid fowl is as hardy as the turkey or pheasant, and will probably
before long be domesticated in British preserves, to whi