PSR THAT STRIKES MATCHES 139 
into violet and contradict you, and then, if you say 
it is violet, it will change into topaz and contradict 
you again. So you had better say nothing—for one 
does not want to be contradicted—but just hold 
your breath and watch it. It will change quite soon 
enough, even then, long before you are tired of its 
rosy, pinky, rosy-pink, pinky-rose magenta, which is 
a colour you have not seen, and which I have not 
told you about before. Only if you must say some- 
thing about it whilst you are looking at it—something 
besides “Oh!” I mean—say it is a Humming-bird. 
That will be quite sufficient, and not one of its 
colours can be offended with you then for not men- 
tioning them and mentioning the others. Now, I 
must tell you that the feathers of this little bird’s 
throat—of that wonderful, gleaming throat-gorget 
—grow out on each side into two little peaks, two 
little pointed tongues of rose-pink magenta flame (but 
hush !), and he can spread them out and shoot them 
forward, as well asthe whole of the gorget, in quite 
a wonderful way. When he does that, what he seems 
to do is to strike a great number of matches at the 
same time, and from each one, as he strikes it, there 
bursts out hundreds and hundreds of bright, sparkling 
- jewels of flame. Ah, you should see him strike his 
jewel-matches—all together, all the jewels that there 
are, all struck in one second, as he whizzes about in 
