I 88 NATURE STUDY. 



chosen as an emblem of liberty by a free people ; and it is 

 jealously protected, partly because of its wondrous beauty, 

 and partly because it was for many, many centuries, per- 

 haps for thousands of years, looked upon as sacred, and 

 the impression of the old idea has not yet wholly disap- 

 peared. 



The quezal is a small bird, about the size of a pigeon, 

 but two of its beavitiful tail feathers are often fully three 

 feet long, and its head is surmounted by a crest in the form 

 of an ancient helmet. The feathers of the back do not lie 

 closely together, as in most other birds, but fall over the 

 shoulders and sides in resplendent waves. The feathers 

 of the head and back, and the two long tail feathers, are a 

 brilliant golden green ; the remaining tail feathers are black 

 and white, and the breast is a bright scarlet. 



It 'is little wonder that the gentle Mayans, whose in- 

 scriptions on their long-since ruined temples still remain 

 undeciphered, and who were conquered by the fiercer Az- 

 tecs, associated this bird with their beneficent sun god, or- 

 that the Aztecs themselves, in a later time, reserved it ex- 

 clusively for their emperors. The wonderful head-dress 

 worn by Montezuma when Cortez first met him, was made 

 of the long tail feathers of the quezal, each supported erect 

 by a thin strip of rare wood, and the whole bound together 

 with fillets of gold. 



The mythology, as well as the history of the Maj-ans is 

 almost wholly lost, for no one has yet been wise enough to 

 read the inscriptions that have been found in the ruins of 

 the ancient cities of Yucatan and other portions of Cen- 

 tral America. A few dim traditions, however, have come 

 down to our time, and one of the most beautiful of these is 

 the legend of the sun god and his bird companion, the 

 brightl}' gleaming quezal. It has been told again and 

 again, as all good stories of the olden time have been, and 



