STUDY Xï. 249 



mejr plumage detaches them, to great advantage, 

 from the folemn and imbrowned verdure of thofe 

 fouthern forefts. We have feen that Nature em- 

 ploys this as the general means of diminifhing the 

 reflexes of the heat ; but, that fne might not con- 

 found the objects of her picture, if fhe has dark- 

 ened the ground of her fcene, fhe has bellowed 

 greater brilliancy on the drefles of the actors. 



It would appear that Nature has appropriated 

 the fpecies of animals coloured, in the moft agree- 

 able manner, to the fpecies of vegetables, whofe 

 flowers are the leaft vivid, as a compenfation. 

 There are much fewer brilliant flowers between 

 the Tropics, than in the temperate Zones ; and, 

 as a compenfation, the infects, the birds, and even 

 the quadrupeds, fuch as feveral fpecies of mon- 

 keys and lizards, are there arrayed in the moft 

 lively colours. When they reft on their proper 

 vegetable, they form with them the moft beautiful 

 contrafts, and the moft lovely harmonies. I have 

 often flood ftill, in the Weft-Indies, to contem- 

 plate the little lizards, which live on the branches 

 of trees, employ themfelves in catching flies. They 

 are of a beautiful apple- green, and have on their 

 back a fort of characters of the moft vivid red, re- 

 fembling the letters of the Arabian alphabet. 

 When a cocoa-tree had feveral of them difperfed 

 along it's fterrij never was there Egyptian Pyramid 



of 



