Birds -- Juvenile literature; Birds of paradise (Birds) -- Juvenile literature
Then there is another very beautiful Bird of Paradise which is called
the Red Bird of Paradise. It is no use trying to find out whether he
or the one I have just been telling you about is the most beautiful,
because if somebody were to think that one were, somebody else would
be sure to have a different opinion. But now I will tell you what this
Red Bird of Paradise is like, and then you will know how beautiful to
think him. You know those lovely plumes that I told you about, that
the Great Bird of Paradise has growing from both his sides, under the
wings, and how he lifts up his wings and shoots them right up into the
air, so that they fall all over him, like two most beautiful fountains
that meet in the air and mingle their waters together. Now the Red
Bird of Paradise has those plumes--those feather-fountains--too, and
he can shoot them up into the air and let them fall all over him,
and look out from amongst them as they bend and wave, and think "How
lovely I am!" just the same as the Great Bird of Paradise can. They
are not so long, it is true, but then they are very thick, and of a
most glorious crimson colour--such a colour as you see, sometimes, in
the western sky, when the sun is flushing it, just before he sinks
down for the night. People talk about a sky like that and call it a
glorious sunset when they see it in Switzerland. One can see it here,
too, if one likes, but it is not usual to talk about it or even to look
at it, unless one is in Switzerland (your mother will tell you the
reason of this). Fancy a bird that looks out of a crimson sunset of
feathers--crimson, but with beautiful white tips to them! Crimson and
white, that is almost more splendid than orange-gold and mauvy-brown;
unless you like orange-gold and mauvy-brown better--it is all a matter
of taste.
But there is another thing that the Red Bird of Paradise has, which the
Great Bird of Paradise has not got at all. He has two little crests
of feathers--beautiful metallic green feathers--on his forehead. Just
fancy! Not one crest, merely, but two. One talks about a feather in
one's cap (which, of course, a _bird_ may have without its being
wrong); but what is a feather in one's cap compared to two crests of
feathers on one's forehead? And such crests! And, besides his crimson
sunset plumes with their white tips and the two little lovely green
crests on his forehead, this bird has two wonderful feathers in his
tail; they are not feathers at all, really, that is to say, the soft
part of them on each side of the quill, which we call the web, is gone,
and there is only the quill left, but it is such a funny sort of quill
that you would never think it was one. It is flat and smooth and shiny,
and quite a quarter of an inch wide. In fact it looks like a ribbon, a
beautiful, black, glossy ribbon, twenty-two inches (which is almost two
feet) long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account