14 THE HTBIAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



admit that iiiey all give evidence of ite greatest 

 artistic appreciation and possession. 



As Grant Allen truly says of the flower-hunting 

 and fruit-eating species, "Surrounded for genera- 

 tions and generations by gorgeous orchids and 

 trumpet-creepers, from which iiiey suck the stored- 

 up nectar ; by gleaming purple or golden fruits ; by 

 burnished beetles, metalEc butterflies, bronze- 

 scaled lizards, and coral snakes, ibeir prey or their 

 enemies, exercising their eyes perpetually in the 

 search for food among the exquisite objects of their 

 environment, and safe from all foes except \hose 

 of their own class, tropical birds have naturally 

 developed tie most gorgeous and tite most perfect 

 forms and colours in the whole animtd creation. 

 And, above all, they have stamped the mark of their 

 peculiarly high esthetic feelings upon tbeir own 

 shapes by the wonderful definiteness of their pat- 

 terns and Ibeir ornamental adjuncts, nowhere 

 equalled, save in the most perfect decorative handi- 

 craft of man himself." 



But notwithstanding their beauty, their works of 

 art, and their other accomplishments, man has seen 

 in them only the helpless victims of his own de- 

 sires. With all tbe scientific knowledge and hu- 

 mane pretensions of to-day, we wage a ruthless 



