Little Bird 
Friends. 
(54) THE BIRD WORLD. 
Le Chgrmeur 
d'oiseaux au Jar din 
des TuilerJes § 
One of the Sights of Paris—the Birds’ Friend at the Tuileries Gardens. 
Little Bird Friends. 
A HISTORY RELATED BY MISS H. B. RUTT FOR YOUNG BIRD LOVERS 
(i Continued from ft. 28.) 
CHAPTER II. 
LAPIS LAZULI, THE INDIGO BIRD. 
This bird has a dreadfully grand name, has 
it not? I will tell you how I came to give it to 
him. He is a most lovely blue all over. He is 
the third bird of this kind that I have had; the 
others were named Speedwell and Bluebell, both 
pretty names. But the colour of the feathers is 
so exactly the colour of the stone called lapis 
lazuli that I felt I must give the next Indigo 
bird I had this rather ugly name. 
The real Lapis Lazuli. 
The only time that I have seen this beautiful 
stone in the rough, just as it was blasted out of 
the rock, was a very long time ago—in 1874— 
during my first visit to Switzerland. The great 
St. Gothard railway tunnel was being made, 
and the workmen were blasting and tearing the 
mountain to pieces. Porphyry, a rich purple, 
and lapis lazuli cropped up here and there among 
the commoner kinds of stone. We began our 
journey over the mountains in a diligence, a 
kind of stage-coach. It was still early in the 
year, and we ascended so high that it was in¬ 
tensely cold, and we were soon in the snow. 
The road was cut out as far as possible, shining 
walls of glistening white rising high on each 
side. But at last we could go no farther. We 
found sleighs, with runners instead of wheels, 
waiting for us. Each sleigh just held two pas¬ 
sengers and the driver. It was splendid fun 
dashing over the smooth snow, the horses- 
seeming to enjoy it as much as we did. But 
here and there a tiresome piece of rock stuck up, 
and we were sometimes bumped about a good 
bit. We saw one sleigh turned right over, and 
the passengers pitched out on the soft snow. But 
we had no such adventure. As we descended 
the other side of the pass we were soon able ta 
leave the sleighs, and get into another diligence 
which was waiting for us. When at last we 
reached a little town with an inn we w r ere, as 
you may suppose, very glad of some hot coffee. 
Here we saw for sale many little ornaments 
made of porphyry and lapis lazuli. The brother 
with whom I was travelling gave me a little 
blue cross as a memento of our exciting journey 
across the snow. 
