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of strange and charming birds. Some of these were colics 

 the "mouse-birds" of South Africa which first attract 

 attention by tufted top-knots that shine like liquid gold 

 against an azure sky above. Besides that, the colics 

 would be notable for the extraordinary length of their 

 tails ; but both characters are eclipsed by the gymnastic 



COLIES ON THE ERYTHRINA. 



attitudes they habitually assume. These curious 

 creatures will rest by the hour apparently at ease 

 though suspended beneath their perch in a pose that 

 no human athlete on the cross-bar could maintain beyond 

 fleeting seconds. These singular attitudes of the colies, 

 together with their "exaggerated tails and arrow-like 

 flight, remind one of parrakeets ; and there, right 

 alongside them, on the topmost boughs perch other 



