ion of Mr. Beale's
bird at Maceo. "This elegant bird," he says, "has a light, playful, and
graceful manner, with an arch and impudent look, dances about when a
visitor approaches the cage, and seems delighted at being made an object
of admiration. It bathes twice daily, and after performing its ablutions
throws its delicate feathers up nearly over its head, the quills of
which have a peculiar structure, enabling the bird to effect this
object. To watch this bird make its toilet is one of the most
interesting sights of nature; the vanity which inspires its every
movement, the rapturous delight with which it views its enchanting
self, its arch look when demanding the spectator's admiration, are all
pardonable in a delicate creature so richly embellished, so neat and
cleanly, so fastidious in its tastes, so scrupulously exact in its
observances, and so winning in all its ways."

Says a traveler in New Guinea: "As we were drawing near a small grove of
teak-trees, our eyes were dazzled with a sight more beautiful than any I
had yet beheld. It was that of a Bird of Paradise moving through the
bright light of the morning sun. I now saw that the birds must be seen
alive in their native forests, in order to fully comprehend the poetic
beauty of the words Birds of Paradise. They seem the inhabitants of a
fairer world than ours, things that have wandered in some way from their
home, and found the earth to show us something of the beauty of worlds
beyond."

THE YELLOW THROATED TOUCAN.

I am a Toucan and I live in a very warm country.

See my handsome black coat and my yellow vest.

My toes are like a parrot's, two in front and two behind.

They help me to hold to the limbs.

Look at my large beak. It looks heavy but it is not, as it is filled
with air cells. These make it very light. Do you like my blue eyes?

My nest is very hard to find. If I tell you where it is, you will not
take the eggs, will you? It is in a hollow limb of a very high tree.

I am very fond of fruit, and for this reason the people on the
plantations do not like me very well.

I can fly very fast, but I cannot get along so well on the ground. I
keep my feet far apart and hop.

I like to sit in the top of the tallest trees. Then I am not afraid.
Nothing can reach me there but a rifle ball.

I do not like the owl, he is so ugly. When we find an owl we get in a
circle around him and snap our great beaks, and jerk our tails up and
down and sc