52 About the Feathered Folk. 



snowy-white. The tail is queerly 

 wedge-shaped, and glitters with 

 green and chestnut and gold ; and 

 on each side of its throat comes a 

 long outstanding tuft of lustrous 

 feathers of a coppery-greenish gloss. 



Here, too, is Gould's humming- 

 bird, "roiseau-mouche," as the 

 French call it. Its neck-ruff is 

 formed of narrow white feathers, 

 shining like the frost, and each one 

 bearing an emerald spot on its tip, 

 bordered by a darker tint. 



But it is useless, quite useless, to 

 attempt to convey by mere words 

 the beauty of the Jewelled Robes ! 

 They were formed by the Power 

 which beheld all that was made, 

 and saw that it was good. They 

 are proofs that beauty is in itself 

 use : even as true use must in itself 

 always be beautiful. 



Our English Wren and the glitter- 

 ing " Oiseau-mouche," tiny as they 

 both are, have their appointed place 



