sy breast and bright
blue on his wings fluttered over their heads screeching at the top of
his voice. "Come in," he said, "please to come right in. But we Jays
be put here to scritch when any stranger cometh into the wood, and
scritch I must and scritch I shall." And certainly he did, in a most
unpleasant tone, for he had been watching a brood of another bird's
chicks instead of minding his proper business, and so had missed them
when they first came in. So he screeched double to make up for lost
time.

Then presently there came towards them another bird, walking very
daintily on the ground. He had a green neck and bright red round his
eyes, and a coat which shone like burnished copper mixed with
burnished gold. He stopped as they came up, and waiting till the
Pricket had wandered a little way from his mother, he went up to him
and said in a very patronising tone: "Welcome, young sir, welcome to
my wood. I have not the pleasure of knowing who you are, but my name I
expect is familiar to you. Phasianus Colchicus, ahem--" and he
strutted about with great importance. "You have heard of me, no
doubt."

"I am afraid not," said the Pricket very civilly. "You see, I come
from the moor. But I thought that I saw one or two birds like you as
we passed through this wood."

"Like me," said the bird suspiciously; "are you quite sure that they
were like me, like me in every way?"

"Well," said the Pricket hesitating, "they had pretty white rings
round their necks--?"

"What!" broke in the bird, "rings round their necks, and like me! Oh,
the ignorance of young people nowadays. My dear young friend, you have
a great deal to learn. Have I a white ring round my neck? No. Well,
now I must ask your pardon if I turn my back upon you for one moment."
And round he turned very slowly and ceremoniously and stood with his
back to the Pricket, who stared at it not knowing what to say.

"Well," said the bird, looking over his shoulder after a time. "You
make no remark. Is it possible that you notice nothing? My dear young
friend, let me ask you, do you see any green on my back?"

"No," said the Pricket, and honestly he did not.

"So," said the bird very tragically. "Look well at that back, for you
will never see such another again, my young friend. I am one of the
old English breed, the last of my race, the last of those that, coming
centuries ago from the banks of the Phasis, made England their home
and were, I may venture to say, her