234 IN BIRD LAND. 
bird’s voice had such a purely musical quality; and 
he sang just as loudly and sweetly as he does in his 
native copse, bringing back the memory of many a 
pleasant woodland ramble. 
A beautiful family group next claimed attention. 
It comprised two adult silver pheasants, a male and 
female, and two little chicks recently from the shell, 
which had been hatched in the Zoo. ‘They looked 
like downy chickens, and were about as large. There 
was no hint of the long, gorgeous plumes that their 
papa bore so proudly ; nothing but brownish, slightly 
checkered down made up their suits. When their 
mamma pecked at something on the ground, they 
would scamper to her for it, as you have seen small 
chickens do. Unlike most young birds, they picked 
up their food themselves, and did not pry open 
their mouths to be fed. 
Had you seen the birds I next stopped to ogle, 
you would have joined in my merriment; for they 
were the great kingfishers of Australia. What heavy 
bills they carried, looking like good-sized clubs! 
One of them pounded his beak against his perch 
until it fairly rattled with the concussion. When I 
tapped lightly against the wires, they stretched out 
their necks, and hissed at me out of their huge 
mouths. 
Nothing was more pleasing than a large wired 
house containing a dozen or more blue jays. Rain 
was falling gently at the time, and the refreshing 
drops filtered upon the birds through the wire roof. 
How they enjoyed their bath as they flitted from 
