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This fpecies is a native of China, where it is held in the higheft efteem, and 

 is kept in the ornamental waters and gardens of the principal Mandarins. It is 

 alfo found in Japan. 



The general colour of this bird on the upper part of the body, is a fine 

 deep brown, with fome of the feathers edged with wliite : the lower part of 

 the bread and belly arc alfo white. The head is ornamented by a creft of 

 the moil elegant flrufture, confiding of a mixture of green and purple fea- 

 thers : the cheeks are white : the upper part of the neck of a yeliowifh red, 

 and covered with fmall (harp-pointed feathers : the lower part of the neck, 

 and the breaft, are of a very fine deep violet-purple. The middle of the 

 wino-s, or fpeculum, is of a moft beautiful lucid blue-green, bounded on the 

 hind part by a tranfverfe bar of white. The fides of the body are ornamented 

 by a fcries of pale-brown feathers, marked in fome fpecimens by diltind al- 

 ternate crefcents of black and white, in others by fine clofe-fet lines of brown. Juft 

 above the fhouklers on each fide are a few fimilar crefcents flill more ftrongly 

 marked: but the moft ftriking fingularity in this ipecies is the figure of the 

 interior fecondary remiges, or thofe neareft the body on each fide i which are 

 much broader than the reft, and ftand with the vanes or webs upright, in a 

 lon<7itudinal direftion, like a pair of fmall fails. Thefe beautiful and fingular 

 plumes, which at firft view feem fcarce capable of being preferved an hour in 

 their proper pofitlon, and which one would fuppofe liable from their fituation 

 to be deranged by a thoufand accidental circumftances, are yet hardly ever 

 fcen in a difordered ftate. The beak is reddifb : the legs and feet are orange- 

 coloured. 



This elegant bird is fometimes imported alive into our own country, but 

 has rarely, (if ever,) been fo far naturalized as to breed in tliis climate. 



URS US 



