Plumage Sentence Examples

Cuckoos are abundant, some of them of lovely plumage, also rollers, kingfishers and hornbills.

Still it is brisk in its movements, and its variegated plumage makes it a pleasing bird.

Its striated plumage also favours this view, as an evidence of permanent immaturity or generalization of form, since striped feathers are so often the earliest clothing of many of these birds, which only get rid of them at their first moult.

As a whole, the birds of Papua are remarkable for their brilliance of plumage, or their metallic colouring.

This has no red in its plumage.

The regiment fluttered like a bird preening its plumage and became motionless.

The small hens presented a great diversity of plumage.

This splendid plumage, however, belongs only to the adult males, the females being exceedingly plain birds of a nearly uniform dusky brown colour, and possessing neither plumes nor lengthened tail feathers.

The general style of coloration of orioles is gaudy yellow and black, rendering them invisible in sunlit foliage, and quite different from the more sombre hues of the friar-birds; but in the islands of Bourou, Timor and Ceram the orioles have not only assumed the tints of friar-birds in general, but in each of the islands named a species of oriole has acquired the little peculiarities in colour of plumage possessed by the friar-bird of the same locality.

The inner plumage of either a goose or a duck is commonly referred to as down.

Indeed, so remarkable a bird must have attracted the notice of the earliest European invaders of America, the more so since its gaudy plumage was used by the natives in the decoration of their persons and weapons.

The down plumage is very soft because ,unlike feather quill shafts, it contains what's called filaments that flow out in every direction.

There are various methods involved in the down, or plumage from the underside of geese and duck feathers, being plucked from the birds.

Even as recently as the late 1960s and 1970s, men showed plenty of plumage.

The avifauna of Brazil is rich in genera, species and individuals, especially in species with brilliantly-coloured plumage.

Most of the varieties, however, of which no fewer than twenty-seven were recognized by French breeders so early as the beginning of the 18th century, differ merely in the colour and the markings of the plumage.

Even in winter, however, its diversified plumage is sufficiently striking.

Its plumage is black.

The other breed, called the Cambridge, is much more variegated in colour, and some parts of the plumage have a bright metallic gloss, while the chicks are generally mottled with brownish grey.

This has been much crossed with the American Bronze, the largest of all, which has the beautiful metallic plumage of the wild bird, with the 1 The French Coq and Poule d'Inde (whence Dindon) involve no contradiction, looking to the general idea of what India then was.

The variegated plumage of the Snipe is subject to no inconsiderable variation, especially in the extent of dark markings on the belly, flanks, and axillaries, while examples are occasionally seen in which no trace of white, and hardly any of buff or grey, is visible, the place of these tints being taken by several shades of chocolate-brown.

Not a winter passes without its appearing in some numbers, when its uncommon aspect, its large size, and beautifully pencilled plumage cause it to be regarded as a great prize by the lucky gun-bearer to whom it falls a victim.

Its plumage for the most part is of a pale buff colour, rayed and speckled with black and reddish brown.

The plumage is white, except the primaries, which are black, and a black plume, formed by the secondaries, tertials and lower scapulars, and richly glossed with bronze, blue and green, which curves gracefully over the hind-quarters.

The plumage generally is black, but the throat is white, tinged with yellow and commonly edged beneath with red; the upper tail-coverts are white, and the lower scarlet.

The upper plumage generally is dark green, but the mantle and rump are crimson, as are a broad abdominal belt, the flanks and many crescentic markings on the otherwise yellow lower parts.

They seem also never to walk or run when on the ground, but always to hop. The bodyfeathers are commonly loose and soft; and, gaily coloured as are most of the species, in few of them has the plumage the metallic glossiness it generally presents in the pies, while the proverbial beauty of the "jay's wing" is due to the vivid tints of blue - turquoise and cobalt, heightened by bars of jet-black, an indication of the same style of ornament being observable in the greater FIG.

Notwithstanding the war carried on against the jay, its varied cries and active gesticulations show it to be a sprightly bird, and at a distance that renders its beauty-spots invisible, it is yet rendered conspicuous by its cinnamon-coloured body and pure white tail-coverts, which contrast with the deep black and rich chestnut that otherwise mark its plumage, and even the young at once assume a dress closely resembling that of the adult.

The Canada jay, or "whisky-jack" (the corruption probably of a Cree name), seems to be of a similar nature, but it presents a still more sombre coloration, its nestling plumage, 3 indeed, being thoroughly corvine in appearance and suggestive of its being a pristine form.

As though to make amends for the dull plumage of the species last mentioned, North America offers some of the most brilliantly i Further information will possibly show that these districts are not occupied at the same season of the year by the two forms.

Callisitta and Dendrophila are nearly allied genera, inhabiting the Indian Region, and remarkable for their beautiful blue plumage.

Several birds of gorgeous plumage come north into Egypt in the spring, among others the golden oriole, the sun-bird, the roller and the blue-cheeked bee-eater.

In outward appearance the motmots have an undoubted resemblance to bee-eaters, but, though beautiful birds, various shades of blue and green predominating in their plumage, they do not exhibit such decided and brilliant colours; and, while the beeeaters are only found in the Old World, the motmots are a purely Neotropical form, extending from southern Mexico to Paraguay, and the majority of species inhabit Central America.

The ornithology of India, though it is not considered so rich in specimens of gorgeous and variegated plumage as that of other tropical regions, contains many splendid and Birds.

Kingfishers of various kinds and herons are sought for their plumage.

The Pagophila is the so-called ivory-gull, P. eburnea, names which hardly do justice to the extreme whiteness of its plumage, to which its jet-black legs offer a strong contrast.

Birds are very numerous, and many of them remarkable for the beauty of their plumage.

Ross's or the roseate gull, Rhodostethia rosea, forms a well-marked genus, distinguished not so much by the pink tint of its plumage (for that is found in other species) but by its small dove-like bill and wedge-shaped tail.

A medieval legend ascribes the conformation of bill and coloration of plumage to a divine recognition of the bird's pity, bestowed on Christ at the crucifixion.

After the first moult the difference between the sexes is shown by the hens inclining to yellowish-green, while the cocks become diversified by orange-yellow and red, their plumage finally deepening into a rich crimson-red, varied in places by a flamecolour.

This last is the beautiful roseate tern, Sterna dougalli; the other is the black tern, Hydrochelidon nigra, belonging to a genus in which the toes are only halfwebbed, of small size and dark leaden-grey plumage.

Birds of either phase of plumage pair indiscriminately, and the young show by their earliest feathers whether they will prove whole or parti-coloured; but in their immature plumage the upper surface is barred with pale reddish brown.

The adult plumage is of a uniform black, with the exception of a frill of white feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck, and certain wing feathers which, especially in the male, have large patches of white.

The number of woodpeckers is very great and the variety of plumage remarkable, and the voice of the cuckoo, of which there are numerous species, resounds in the spring as in Europe.

Waterfowl are numerous and the forests of the warm valleys are filled with song-birds and birds of beautiful plumage.

About as big as a crow, its plumage exhibits the blended tints of chocolate-colour and grey, barred and pencilled with dark-brown or black, and spotted in places with white, that prevail in the two families just named.

Its plumage is plain in colour, being of an almost uniform greyish black above, the space round the eyes and a ring round the neck being variegated with white, and a patch of pale rufous appearing above the carpal joint, while the lower parts of the body are white.

This bird inhabits the lagoons and swamps of Paraguay and Southern Brazil, where it is called " Chaja " or " Chaka," and is smaller than the preceding, wanting its " horn," but having its head furnished with a dependent crest of feathers; while the plumage is grey.

In Central America occurs another species, C. derbiana, chiefly distinguished by the darker colour of its plumage.

The purple cloak which Picus wore fastened by a golden clasp is preserved in the plumage of the bird.

Among the birds prized for their plumage are the marabout, crane, heron, blackbird, parrot, jay and humming-birds of extraordinary brilliance.

While the female presents the usual inconspicuous mottled plumage of the same sex in most species of Anatinae, the male is one of the handsomest of his kind.

Forster in 1788 (Enchiridion, p. 37) conferred upon it, from its snowy plumage, the name Chionis, which has most properly received general acceptance, though in the same year the compiler Gmelin termed the genus Vaginalis, as a rendering of Pennant's English name, and the species alba.

It is about the size of and has much the aspect of a Pigeon; 1 its plumage is pure white, its bill somewhat yellow at the base, passing into pale pink towards the tip. Round the eyes the skin is bare, and beset with cream-coloured papillae, while the legs are bluish-grey.

In its strongly-contrasted plumage of black and white, with a coral-coloured bill, the Oyster-catcher is one of the most conspicuous birds of the European coasts, and in many parts is still very common.

Then we have a group of species in which the plumage is wholly or almost wholly black, and among them only do we find birds that fulfil the implication of the scientific name of the genus by having feet that may be called blood-red.

None of the Petrels are endowed with any brilliant colouring - sootyblack, grey of various tints (one of which is often called "blue"), and white being the only hues the plumage exhibits.

Its bill is shorter than its head; its tarsi are reticulated instead of scutellated in front, with the upper part feathered instead of being bare; and the plumage of its body and wings is very different, each feather being tipped with a distinct whitish band, while that of the head and neck is greyishbrown.

In size and plumage the two sexes offer a striking contrast, the male weighing about 4 lb, its plumage for the most part of a rich glossy black shot with blue and purple, the lateral tail feathers curved outwards so as to form, when raised, a fan-like crescent, and the eyebrows destitute of feathers and of a bright vermilion red.

The plumage of both sexes is at first like that of the female, but after moulting the young males gradually assume the more brilliant plumage of their sex.

There are also many cases on record, and specimens may be seen in the principal museums, of old female birds assuming, to a greater or less extent, the plumage of the male.

The plumage, which clothes the whole body, generally consists of small scale-like feathers, many of them consisting only of a simple shaft without the development of barbs; but several of the species have the head decorated with long cirrhous tufts, and in some the tail-quills, which are very numerous, are also long.'

The plumage was fair, curious, and well assorted.

The plumage is very variable, including red beret, tweed jacket and an orange proboscis.

The views were actually very distant at about 500 meters, although its plumage and song were sufficiently distinctive to allow a positive identification.

There were three distant cattle egrets across the estuary, two in full breeding plumage.

Young male eiders will molt several times before reaching full adult plumage in their second year.

At this age, the only relics from immature plumage are the black center to the tail and dark feathering on the secondaries.

In summer, young goldfinches sometimes visit with the adults, their plumage changing gradually to adult feathers.

What a handsome bird - it reminded me of an African hornbill with its red beak and black and white plumage.

The plumage is dark brown with a wonderful blend of orange / red double lacing viewed from the front.

Despite popular myth these pigments do not leach out of the birds ' plumage in heavy rain!

While the picture above shows the more typical brownish plumage they also have pale morphs some of which can be almost white.

The female, juvenile and male in eclipse plumage are very similar with their mottled browns and paler belly.

Carry all of their breeding plumage we won't have.

However in Kenya it is seen in its far less distinctive non-breeding plumage.

The male is MUCH smaller than its spouse and still has immature plumage.

The Rose- colored Starling, albeit in nondescript juvenile plumage, gave excellent views feeding among the cows.

The endemic form in Taiwan, with brown plumage overall, may prove to be a separate species in due course.

In this species the female takes no part in the care of the eggs or young so the male has the duller plumage.

Two of them being in summer plumage was an added bonus.

The picture is an immature bird just aquiring adult plumage.

The RSPB was founded in 1889 to tackle the damaging trade in wild birds ' plumage.

General characteristics Barn owls have beautiful plumage with buff colored topsides, flecked with gray and white undersides and face.

They looked unreal with their scarlet plumage positively glowing.

We also saw a pair of gray wagtails, in very smart fresh breeding plumage, running about in the shallows chasing insects.

In structure and some of its habits much resembling a bullfinch, but much exceeding that bird in size, it has the plumage of a crossbill and appears to undergo the same changes as do the members of the restricted genus Loxia - the young being of a dull greenish-grey streaked with brownish-black, the adult liens tinged with golden-green, and the cocks glowing with crimson-red on nearly all the body-feathers, this last colour being replaced after moulting in confinement by bright yellow.

The honey-eaters present a great diversity of plumage.

Nevertheless, it is clear that in Japan we have, as it were, a repetition, of some of our most familiar species - the redbreast and the hedgesparrow, for example - slightly modified in plumage or otherwise, so as to furnish instances of the most accurate representation, e.g.

Moreover, he stated subsequently that he thereby hoped to excite other naturalists to share with him the investigations he was making on a subject which had hitherto escaped notice or had been wholly neglected, since he considered that he had proved the disposition of the feathered tracts in the plumage of birds to be the means of furnishing characters for the discrimination of the various natural groups as significant and important as they were new and unexpected.

Plain in plumage, being greyish brown above and dull white below, while its quills are dingy black, variegated with white, there is little about the mocking-bird's appearance beyond its graceful form to recommend it; but the lively gesticulations it exhibits are very attractive, and therein its European rival in melody is far surpassed, for the cock-bird mounts aloft in rapid circling flight, and, alighting on a conspicuous perch, pours forth his ever-changing song to the delight of all listeners; while his actions in attendance on his mate are playfully demonstrative and equally interest the observer.

At a distance the plumage of the adult appears to be white and black in about equal proportions, the latter predominating above; but on closer examination nearly all the seeming black is found to be a bottle-green gleaming with purple and copper; the tail-coverts, both above and below, are of a bright bay colour, seldom visible in flight.

The old English "Popinjay" and the old French Papegaut have almost passed out of use, but the German Papagei and generally to a large and very natural group of birds, which for more than a score of centuries have attracted attention, not only from their gaudy plumage, but, at first and chiefly, it would seem, from the readiness with which many of them learn to imitate the sounds they hear, repeating the words and even phrases of human speech with a fidelity that is often astonishing.

The large Carnivora, lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards are the first favourites; then follow monkeys, then the large ungulates, elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses, camels and giraffes, deer and antelopes and equine animals, whilst birds are appreciated chiefly for plumage and song.

Allied to the pine-grosbeak are a number of species of smaller size, but its equals in beauty of plumage.'

The heron (sagi) constitutes a charming feature in a Japanese landscape, especially the silver heron (shira-sagi), which displays its brilliant white plumage in the rice-fields from spring to early autumn.

Other English names are green plover and hornpie - the latter from its long hornlike crest and pied plumage.

It is a native of the Canary Islands and Madeira, where it occurs abundantly in the wild state, and is of a greyish-brown colour, slightly varied with brighter hues, although never attaining the beautiful plumage of the domestic bird.

During the years of its domestication, the canary has been the subject of careful artificial selection, the result being the production of a bird differing widely in the colour of its plumage, and in a lew of its varieties even in size and form, from the original wild species.

The female is drab, but shows the same white markings as the male, and the young males resemble the females until after the first autumn moult, when they gradually assume the plumage of their sex.

The female, on the other hand, weighs only 2 lb, its plumage is of a russet brown colour irregularly barred with black, and its tail feathers are but slightly forked.

The males are polygamous, and during autumn and winter associate together, feeding in flocks apart from the females; but with the approach of spring they separate, each selecting a locality for itself, from which it drives off all intruders, and where morning and evening it seeks to attract the other sex by a display of its beautiful plumage, which at this season attains its greatest perfection, and by a peculiar cry, which Selby describes as "a crowing note, and another similar to the noise made by the whetting of a scythe."

There is a large variety of perching birds, including several species of brilliant plumage - sun-birds, kingfishers, rollers and flycatchers, &c.; kites, hawks and owls are numerous, and the lakes and marshes abound with water-fowl and herons, ibises, &c.

Many of the smaller birds, such as the sun-birds, bee-eaters, the parrots and halcyons, as well as the larger plantain-eaters, are noted for the brilliance of their plumage.

Herodotus, who had never seen the phoenix himself, did not believe this story, but he tells us that the pictures of it represented a bird with golden and red plumage, closely resembling an eagle in size and shape.

A winter plumage bird was on St Martin's on 11th.

Indeed its owl-like visage, its short wings and soft plumage, do not indicate a bird of very active habits, but the weapons of offence with which it is armed show that it must be able to cope with vigorous prey.

The synonym "gray," given by Willughby and Ray, is doubtless derived from the general colour of the species, and has its analogue in the Icelandic Grdond, applied almost indifferently, or with some distinguishing epithet, to the female of any of the freshwater ducks, and especially to both sexes of the present, in which, as stated in the text, there is comparatively little conspicuous difference of plumage in drake and duck.

The plumage is mostly spotless white with the wing tips being black with white mirrors.

According to its sex, or the season of the year, it is known as the red, grey or brown linnet, and by the earlier English writers on birds, as well as in many localities at the present time, these names have been held to distinguish at least two species; but there is now no question among ornithologists on this point, though the conditions under which the bright crimson-red colouring of the breast and crown of the cock's spring and summer plumage is donned and doffed may still be open to discussion.

In strong contrast to the ungainly toucan is the tiny humming-bird, whose beautiful plumage, swiftness of flight and power of wing are sources of constant wonder and admiration.

This, when adult, is readily distinguishable from the ordinary bird by the absence of the blush from its plumage, and by the curled feathers that project from and overhang each side of the head, which with some difference of coloration of the bill, pouch, bare skin round the eyes and irides give it a wholly distinct expression.

The plumage of the male is of a uniform black colour, that of the female various shades of brown, while the bill of the male, especially during the breeding season, is of a bright gamboge yellow.

The wonderful plumage of the " quetzal " (Trogon resplendens) was, it is said, reserved b y the Aztec rulers for their own exclusive use.

The bird-life of the country is remarkably rich; one bird of magnificent plumage, the quetzal, quijal or quesal (Trogon resplendens), has been chosen as the national emblem.

They are about the size of a pigeon, with orange-coloured plumage, a pronounced crest, and orange-red flesh, and build their nests on rock.

The varied plumage of the cock - his bright red breast and his grey back, set off by his coal-black head and quills - is naturally attractive; while the facility with which he is tamed, with his engaging disposition in confinement, makes him a popular cage-bird, - to say nothing of the fact (which in the opinion of so many adds to his charms) of his readily learning to "pipe" a tune, or some bars of one.

There is a general tendency among these insular birds to vary more or less from their continental representatives, and this is especially shown by the former having always darker plumage and stronger bills and legs.

The deeper tints are, however, peculiar to the nuptial plumage, or are only to be faintly traced at other times, so that in winter the adults - and the young always - have a much plainer appearance, ashy-grey and white being almost the only hues observable.

Of these emigrants some return the following spring, and are recognizable by the more advanced state of their plumage, the effect presumably of having wintered in countries enjoying a brighter and hotter sun.

Woodpeckers (Coloptes auratus), macaws, parrakeets and other small parrots, and trogons, these last of beautifully resplendent plumage, deserve particular mention.

The young during the first twelvemonth are of a greyish-brown, but when mature almost the whole plumage, except the black primaries, is white, deeply suffused by a rich blush of rose or salmon-colour, passing into yellow on the crest and lower part of the neck in front.

The birds of Natal are of many species; some have beautiful plumage, but none of them, with the exception of the canary, are to be considered as songsters.

While the winter plumage is of a sober greyish-brown, the breeding-dress is marked by a predominance of bright bay or chestnut, rendering the wearer a very beautiful object.

Of the last there are two species, the kiji proper, a bird presenting no remarkable features, and the copper pheasant, a magnificent bird with plumage, of dazzling beauty.

The latter once exhibited inTkyO a silver game-cock with soft plumage and surface modelling of the most delicate character.

Its gay plumage is matched by its sprightly nature; and together they make it one of the most favourite cage-birds among all classes.

Wallace, who has studied those birds in their native haunts, that they assume the perfect plumage of their sex, which, however, they retain permanently afterwards, and not during the breeding season only as was formerly supposed.

As soon as the male birds have begun their graceful antics, he shoots them, one after the other, with blunt arrows, for the purpose of stunning and bringing them to the ground without drawing blood, which would injure their plumage; and so eager are those birds in their courtship that almost all the males are thus brought down before the danger is perceived.

The lesser bird of paradise (Paradisea minor), though smaller in size and somewhat less brilliant in plumage, in other respects closely resembles the preceding species.

The prevailing colour of the most admired varieties of the canary is yellow, approaching in some cases to orange, and in others to white; while the most robust birds are those which, in the dusky green of the upper surface of their plumage, show a distinct approach to the wild forms. The least prized are those in which the plumage is irregularly spotted and speckled.

This section comprehends three species only, known as Phalaropes or swimming sandpipers, which are distinguished by the membranes that fringe their toes, in two of the species forming marginal lobes,' and by the character of their lower plumage, which is as close as that of a duck.

This sandpiper is characterized by its dark upper plumage, which contrasts strongly with the white of the lower part of the back and gives the bird as it flies much the look of a very large house-martin.

Conspicuous by his variegated plumage, his peculiar call note 4 and his glad song, the cock is almost everywhere a favourite.

Her plumage, with exception of the wings and tail, which are of a dull red, is light-olive above and brownish-yellow beneath.

The true Tapaculo (P. albicollis) has a general resemblance in plumage to the females of some of the smaller Shrikes (Lanius), and to a cursory observer its skin might pass for that of one; but its shortened wings and powerful feet would on closer inspection at once reveal the difference.

The avifauna is varied and abundant, comprising eagles, vultures (protected by law), hawks, owls, pelicans, cranes, turkeys, geese, partridges " (called quail or " Bob White " elsewhere), ducks, &c., besides numerous smaller species, many of which are brilliant of plumage but harsh of voice.

The rich-toned, soft plumage of birds or the magnificent blending of colors in a bunch of peonies or chrysanthemums cannot be obtained with absolute fidelity on the ribbed surface of velvet.

The plumage of gorgeously-hued birds, the blossoms of flowers (especially the hydrangea), the folds of thick brocade, microscopic diapers and arabesques, are built up with tiny fragments of iridescent shell, in combination with silver-foil, goldlacquer and colored bone, the whole producing a rich and sparkling effect.

In almost all climes the tortoise and the frog are among the precursors and heralds of this season, and birds fly with song and glancing plumage, and plants spring and bloom, and winds blow, to correct this slight oscillation of the poles and preserve the equilibrium of nature.

The cock, in his plumage of yellowish-green and yellow is one of the most finely coloured of common English birds, but he is rather heavily built, and his song is hardly commended.

Of the extremely limited Samoan fauna, consisting mainly of an indigenous rat, four species of snakes and a few birds, the most interesting member is the Didunculus strigirostris, a ground pigeon of iridescent greenish-black and bright chestnut plumage, which forms a link between the extinct dodo and the living African Treroninae.

A diagnosis covering all the Ratitae (struthio, rhea, casuarius, dromaeus, apteryx and the allied fossils dinornis and aepyornis) would be as follows - (i) terrestrial birds without keel to the sternum, absolutely flightless; (ii) quadrate bone with a single proximal articulating knob; (iii) coracoid and scapula fused together and forming an open angle; (iv) normally without a pygostyle; (v) with an incisura ischiadica; (vi) rhamphotheca compound; (vii) without apteria or bare spaces in the plumage; (viii) with a complete copulatory organ, moved by skeletal muscles.

The same law prevailing in all natures creation, in the plumage of birds, the painting of butterifies wings, the marking of shells, and in all the infinite variety and beauty of the floral kingdom, the lesson is constantly renewed to the observant eye.

The sooty-grey colour that, deepening into blackish-brown on the crown and quills, pervades the whole of its plumage - the lower tailcoverts, which are of a deep chestnut, excepted - renders it a conspicuous object; and though, for some reason or other, far from being a favourite, it is always willing when undisturbed to become intimate with men's abodes.

One Oriental species (Sciurus caniceps) presents almost the only known instance among mammals of the assumption during the breeding season of a distinctly ornamental coat, corresponding to the breeding plumage of birds.

The most obvious distinctions between Totaninae and Tringinae may be said to lie in the acute or blunt form of the tip of the bill (with which is associated a less or greater development of the sensitive nerves running almost if not quite to its extremity, and therefore greatly influencing the mode of feeding) and in the style of plumage - the Tringinae, with blunt and flexible bills, mostly assuming a summer-dress in which some tint of chestnut or reddish-brown 1 These are Phalaropus fulicarius and P. (or Lobipes) hyperboreus, and were thought by some of the older writers to be allied to the Coots (q.v.).

Its bright red beak, the bare bluish skin surrounding its large grey eyes, and the tufts of elongated feathers springing vertically from its lores, give it a pleasing and animated expression; but its plumage generally is of an inconspicuous ochreous grey above and dull white beneath, - the feathers of the upper parts, which on the neck and throat are long and loose, being barred by fine zigzag markings of dark brown, while those of the lower parts are more or less striped.

Seeds are carried in soil adhering to their feet and plumage, and aquatic plants have in consequence for the most part an exceptionally wide range.

A large variety of materials have been used in their manufacture by different peoples at different times - painted linen and shavings of stained horn by the Egyptians, gold and silver by the Romans, rice-paper by the Chinese, silkworm cocoons in Italy, the plumage of highly coloured birds in South America, wax, small tinted shells, &c. At the beginning of the 8th century the French, who originally learnt the art from the Italians, made great advances in the accuracy of their reproductions, and towards the end of that century the Paris manufacturers enjoyed a world-wide reputation.

Though part of the plumage in many sun-birds gleams with metallic lustre, they owe much of their beauty to feathers which are not lustrous, though almost as vivid,' and the most wonderful combination of the brightest colours - scarlet, purple, blue, green and yellow - is often seen in one and the same bird.

The birds with their plumage and their notes are in harmony with the flowers, but what youth or maiden conspires with the wild luxuriant beauty of Nature?