cetera, devour it with the head alvv^ays 

 first. It rarely alights upon the ground, 

 and so proud is the creature of its ele- 

 gant dress that it never permits a soil to 

 remain upon it, frequently spreading out 

 its wings and feathers, regarding its 

 splendid self in every direction." Dr. 

 Bennett also gives an entertaining 

 description of a caged bird of this spe- 

 cies. He says: 



"This elegant bird has a light, playful, 

 and graceful manner, with an arch and 

 impudent look, dances about when a 

 visitor approaches the cage, and seems 

 delighted at being made an object of 

 admiration. It bathes twice daily, and 

 after performing its ablutions throws its 

 delicate feathers up nearly over its head, 

 the quills of which have a peculiar struc- 

 ture, enabling the bird to effect this 

 object. To watch this bird make its toilet 

 is one of the most interesting sights of 

 nature; the vanity which inspires its 

 every movement, the rapturous delight 



with which it views its enchanting self, 

 its arch look when demanding the specta- 

 tor's admiration, are all pardonable in a 

 delicate creature so richly embellished, so 

 neat and cleanly, so fastidious in its 

 tastes, so scrupulously exact in its observ- 

 ances, and so winning in all its ways." 



A traveler, who observed these birds 

 in their native haunts, says: "As we 

 were drawing near a small grove of teak- 

 trees, our eyes were dazzled with a sight 

 more beautiful than any I had yet beheld. 

 It was that of a Bird of Paradise moving 

 through the bright light of the morning 

 sun. I now saw that the birds must be 

 seen alive in their native forests, in order 

 to fully comprehend the poetic beauty of 

 the words 'Birds of Paradise.' They 

 seem the inhabitants of a fairer world 

 than ours, things that have wandered in 

 some way from their home, and found 

 the earth to show us something of the 

 beauty of worlds beyond." 



NATURE'S PROMISE. 



Snow in the valley and snow on the mountain. 

 And sparkles of frost on the roof and the spire; 



The cold moonbeams fall on the ice-prisoned fountain 

 The sun cannot free with his faint touch of fire. 



But the song of the south-wind shall waken the clover. 

 The ring-dove will coo to his mate in the bower ; 



The frost-fashioned flake, when the winter is over, 

 A dewdrop shall shine in the heart of a flower. 



— Nixon Waterman. 



48 



