GREAT BIRD OF PARADISE. 145 



Description. 



CHAP. VII. 



" Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods, 

 Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar, 

 Thick swarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand, 

 That with a sportive vanity has deck'd 

 The plumy nations, there her gayest hues 

 Profusely pours. But if she bids them shine 

 Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day, 

 Yet frugal still, she humbles them in song." 



The peacock spreads 



His ev'ry colour'd glory to the sun." 



GREAT BIRD OF PARADISE. 



IT is impossible to do justice to the elegant 

 plumage which adorns this bird; the most re- 

 markable features in it are the two long filaments 

 which rise beneath the tail, and the quantity of 

 long feathers that grow on the sides of it between 

 the wing and thigh, and which extending far be- 

 yond the real tail, are confounded with it, and 

 form a kind of false tail. These extraneous fea- 

 thers are individually extremely light, and by 

 their conjunction, form a bulk that is specifically 

 lighter, being almost without any substance, and 



YOU III. NO. XIX. T 



