THE FIERY TOPAZ. 



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coarse buff leather, and was so similar in hue to the branches 

 that surrounded it, that it seemed more like a natural excres- 

 cence than a bird's nest. The reason for this similitude was 

 simple enough. It was made of a natural excrescence, and 

 therefore resembled one. 



When the Fiery Topaz wishes to build a nest, it goes off to 

 the trees, and searches for a kind of fungus belonging to the 



FIERY TOPAZ AND HERMIT. 



genus boletus, and with this singular material it makes its home. 

 It is tough, leathery, thick and soft, and in some curious manner 

 the bird contrives to mould the apparently intractable substance 

 into the shape which is represented in the illustradon. The 

 non-botanical reader may form an idea of the appearance of 



