Q.$0 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



of porphyry, with it's hieroglyphics, To myfterious, 

 and fo magnificent, in my eyes *. 



I have, likewife, feen flocks of fmall birds, de* 

 nominated cardinals, becaufe they are red all over, 

 fettle on ih rubbery, the verdure of which was black- 

 ened by the Sun, and prefent the appearance of gi-r 

 randoles ftudded with little burning lamps. Father 

 du Tertre fays, that there is not. in the Antilles, a 

 fpectacle more brilliant, than the alighting of co- 

 veys of the parrot fpecies, called arras, on the 

 fummit of a palm-tree. The blue, the red, and 

 the yellow of their plumage, covers the boughs of 

 the flowerlefs tree, with the moft fuperb enameL 

 Harmonies fomewhat fimilar may be feen in our 

 own climates. The goldfinch, with his red head, 

 and wings tipped with yellow, appears, at a dis- 

 tance, on a bufli, like the flower of the thiftle in 

 which he was hatched. You would fometimes 

 take the flate-coloured wagtail, when perched on 

 the extremity of the leaves of a reed, for the flower 

 of the iris. 



* They have fometimes ferved me to explain the moral fenfe 

 of hieroglyphics, engraven on the obelifks of Egypt, in honour 

 of her conquering heroes. On beholding the characters traced 

 upon them from right to left, with heads, beaks and paws, they 

 brought to my recollection the little fly-catchers of my palm- 

 trees. 



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