The King-Bird. 447 



without making any wound or shedding any blood. The trees 

 frequented by the birds are very lofty ; it is therefore neces- 

 sary to erect a small leafy covering or hut among the branches, 

 to which the hunter mounts before daylight in the morning 

 and remains the whole day, and whenever a bird alights they 

 are almost sure of securing it. (See Frontispiece.) They re- 

 turned to their homes the same evening, and I never saw any 

 thing more of them, owing, as I afterward found, to its being 

 too early to obtain birds in good plumage. 



The first two or three days of our stay here were very wet, 

 and I obtained but few insects or birds, but at length, when I 

 was beginning to despair, my boy Baderoon returned one day 

 with a specimen which repaid me for months of delay and 

 expectation. It was a small bird, a little less than a thrush. 

 The greater part of its plumage was of an intense cinnabar 

 red, with a gloss as of spun glass. On the head the feathers 

 became short and velvety, and shaded into rich orange. Be- 

 neath, from the breast, downward, was pure white, with the 

 softness and gloss of silk, and across the breast a band of deep 

 metallic green separated this color from the red of the throat. 

 Above each eye was a round spot of the same metallic green ; 

 the bill was yellow, and the feet and legs were of a fine cobalt 

 blue, strikingly contrasting with all the other parts of the 

 body. Merely in arrangement of colors and texture of plum- 

 age this little bird was a gem of the first water, yet these com- 

 prised only half its strange beauty. Springing from each side 

 of the breast, and ordinarily lying concealed under the wings, 

 were little tufts of grayish feathers about two inches long, 

 and each terminated by a broad band of intense emerald 

 green. These plumes can be raised at the will of the bird, 

 and spread out into a pair of elegant fans when the wings are 

 elevated. But this is not the only ornament. The two mid- 

 dle feathers of the tail are in the form of slender wires about 

 five inches long, and which diverge in a beautiful double 

 curve. About half an inch of the end of this wire is webbed 

 on the outer side only, and colored of a fine metallic green, and 

 being curled spirally inward, form a pair of elegant glittering 

 buttons, hanging five inches below the body, and the same dis- 

 tance apart. These two ornaments, the breast-fans and the 

 spiral-tipped tail-wires, are altogether unique, not occurring 



