292 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



are fome which preferve entirely the gray, or 

 brown ground of their plumage, but glazed over 

 with red, as if they had been rolled in carmine. 

 Others are befprinkled with red, as if you had 

 blown a fcariet powder over them. Together 

 with this, fome haiVe a mixture of fmall white 

 points, which produces a charming effeâ:. A little 

 bird of India, called Bengali, is painted in this 

 manner. 



But nothing can be more lovely tlian a turtle- 

 dove of Africa, who bears on her pearl-gray plu- 

 mage, precifely over the place of the heart, a 

 bloody fpot confiding of different kinds of red 

 blended, perfedly refembling a wound : it feems 

 as if this bird, dedicated to Love, was deftined to 

 wear her mafter's livery, and had ferved as a mark 

 to his arrows. What is ftill more wonderful, 

 thefe rich coraHne ti»ts difappear in mofl. of thofe 

 birds as foon as the feafon of love is over, as if 

 they were robes of ceremony, lent them by the be- 

 nevolence of Nature, only during the celebration 

 of their nuptials. 



The red colour, lituated in the midft of the 

 five primordial colours, is the harmonic expref- 

 fion of them, by way of excellence; and the re- 

 luit, as has been faid, of the union of two con- 

 traries, light and darknefs. There are, befides, 



tints 



