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along through the leafy coverts, in which they 

 are most at home, the snowy whiteness of his long 

 waving train gleams out in the light of the 

 scattered sunbeams that struggle downward through 

 the branches, and produces effects quite unlike those 

 that attend the flight of any other kind of bird. 

 They are not very common inmates of gardens 

 about Calcutta, but stray specimens may now and 

 then be met with at almost any time of the year, 

 and, at the beginning of summer, small parties 

 of them, apparently in quest of good sites for 

 nests, often visit quiet areas, such as those afforded 

 by the more secluded parts of the Botanic Garden. 

 Such parties include birds of both sexes, some of 

 the males being in all the splendour of fully 

 developed trains and mature black and white 

 colouring, whilst others have trains of chestnut 

 or are still feathered like the females. At all 

 other times of the year it is very rare to 

 see any but short-tailed, chestnut and black birds. 

 There are few other birds that pass through such 

 an astonishing change in the characters of their 

 plumage as the males of this species do. Even 

 in their first dress, and before they have acquired 

 their wonderful trains, they are strikingly beautiful. 

 They have such full, bright, black eyes, such rich 

 chestnut tints in the wings and tail, contrasting 

 with the shining black of the head and the snowy 

 white of their underclothing, and their movements 

 are so exceptionally graceful that it is hard to 



