her as
plainly, as I see you now, and was terrified almost out of my senses.

"But my father called to me again, and I shut my eyes and rushed up
stairs. Of course I didn't hit any thing for there was no such creature
there. It was my fright at hearing the story, that made me see what
didn't exist.

"Now, Charley, do you think you had better read books, that can have
such an effect as that?"

[Illustration]

CURIOUS BIRDS

Uncle Brown had in his Museum, a great many Birds, as well as shells. I
don't mean living birds, but stuffed birds. In the old countries there
is a class of men, who, having been taught how to do it well, make it
their regular trade to procure birds, and after having taken off their
skins, with all the feathers on, to stuff them with some soft substance.
They are exactly as if alive, and of the same size.

There are some of these Taxidermists (as they are called) in this
country, though not, I believe, very many. Uncle Brown got most of his
birds from Europe, by means of uncle sea-captain, when he came home from
his voyages.

Uncle Brown going out one day, to Charley's father's, carried several of
these birds with him, which were so pretty, that Charley was greatly
delighted.

[Illustration: EMERALD BIRD OF PARADISE.]

The first he showed him was called "the Emerald Bird of Paradise," and
was about as large as a jay. Its home is New Guinea and some other
parts of the hot regions of Asia. Its body, breast, and lower parts are
of a deep, rich brown; the front is covered thickly with black feathers,
mixed with green; the throat is of a splendid golden-green; the head is
yellow; and the tail is made up of long, downy plumes of a soft yellow,
together with a pair filaments almost two feet long.

"The bird is so vain of its beautiful plumage, that it will not let a
speck of dirt stay on it; but is continually examining its feathers to
see that they are perfectly clean. When wild, it always flies and sits
facing the wind, lest its elegant plumes should get ruffled.

"It lives partly on insects, such as grasshoppers, which it will not
touch, unless it has killed them itself, but chiefly on the seeds of the
teak tree and a kind of fig.

"There were once a great many strange stories about this bird. As the
natives of Guinea used to cut off their legs, and dry them, and sell
them, of course they reached Europe without feet. So the people there
got up a report that the bird lived always i