FLY-CATCHER. 



171 



the part of Hawks amongst flies, feeding on them alone, and 

 always on the look-out. In summer time, it is very interest- 

 ing to watch a Beam-bird, perched on some prominent twig, 

 commanding a view all round. In an instant it may be seen 

 to dart, like a little shot, upon a fly, passing often at so great 

 distance that it would quite escape our powers of vision ; but 

 by no means that of this keen-sighted bird, for the fly is no 

 sooner seen than caught, and brought back with equal rapidity 

 to the twig on which the bird was before perched. The clear- 



The Paradise Fly-catcher. 



ness of sight in birds is indeed prodigious, and has been 

 calculated by an eminent naturalist (Lacepede) to be nine 

 times more extensive than that of the farthest-sighted man. 



The foreign varieties of this kind are, many of them, of 

 exquisite beauty in plumage and elegance in form ; we may 

 mention, for example, the Paradise Fly-catcher. 



Of the fourth genus (the Cotingas), we have but one species 

 in England, and that but rarely seen, the Silk-tail, or Waxen- 

 Chatterer, from the secondary quills of the wings being 



