Egrets and A igrettes . 
7 
on a finger-ring—a little while ago swiftly pulsating 
with the intense joyous energy of life, were to be 
placed in any lady’s palm—but I am digressing. 
Among the birds that excel in magnificence of 
colour, others might mention the trogons, toucans, 
jacamars, some kingfishers, and some of the yellow 
and green and purple fruit pigeons of the East ; 
parrots, tanagers, orioles, honey-suckers ; gold and 
silver pheasants ; the peacock ; the impeyan pheasant; 
the resplendent and sacred quetzal, and the crested 
orange and scarlet cock-of-the-rock. Those who, 
like Wallace, have observed the Birds of Paradise 
disporting themselves in their native haunts, and 
exhibiting their wonderful feather ornaments, regard 
these birds as surpassing all others in loveliness. 
Ruskin tells us that the familiar swan is the most 
beautiful bird : that is, when viewed resting peacefully 
on the surface of a stream, or, to quote George Moore’s 
description, slowly “ propelling its freshness to and 
fro, balancing itself in the current,” its bosom deep in 
the darkening water in which it is imaged, its proud 
neck curved, and the broad arch of its ruffled pinions 
seen against theluminous crimson disc of the settingsun. 
Here we are let into the secret of the matter. There 
is the emotion caused in us by entire visible nature, 
and the emotion received from the contemplation of 
any single beautiful object in nature ; and the two may 
strike the heart together, or correspond in time, and 
become one. Furthermore, just as Nature as a whole 
