36 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
sometimes, when they look in the glass. These 
feathers are very short and set closely together, 
which makes them look like plush or velvet, so you 
can think how handsome they must be. What 
would you think if you were to go out for a walk 
and see a bird flying about with a yellow plush or 
yellow velvet head? But the throat is handsomer 
still. That is a glorious, gleaming, metallic green. 
Some feathers are called ‘‘ metallic,’ because when 
the light shines on them they flash it back again 
just as a bright piece of metal does; a helmet or a 
breastplate, for instance. You know how “éhey flash 
and gleam in the sunshine when the Horse-Guards 
ride by. At least, if you have seen the Horse-Guards, 
you do, and if you have not, well, I daresay you have 
seen it in a dish-cover or a bright coal-scuttle. But 
fancy feathers as soft as velvet, gleaming as if they 
were polished metal, but gleaming all emerald green 
as if they were jewels—emeralds—too! Then on 
the forehead and the chin of this bird—by which 
J mean just under the beak—there are glossy velvety 
plumes of a deeper green colour. The other is 
emerald. ‘These are like the deep, lovely greens that 
one sees sometimes in the fiery opal or the mother-of- 
pearl. What jewellery! and out of it all flash two 
other jewels—the bird’s two eyes—which are of a 
beautiful bright yellow colour to match with the yellow 
