"The two hens were sitting quietly on a branch, and the four cocks, dressed in their very best, their ruffs of green and yellow standing out, giving them a handsome appearance about the head and neck" (yes, I feel sure of that), "their long flowing plumes so arranged that every feather seemed combed out, and the long wires" (he means the "funny feathers") "stretched well out behind, were dancing in a circle round them." (Just fancy!) "It was an interesting sight." (I should _think_ so!) "First one and then another would advance a little nearer to a hen, and she, coquette-like" (you will have to ask your mother what _that_ means), "would retire a little, pretending not to care for any advances. A shot was fired, contrary to our expressed wish, there was a strange commotion, and two of the cocks flew away" (you see what shooting does), "but the others and the hens remained. Soon the two returned, and again the dance began, and continued long. As we had strictly forbidden any more shooting, all fear was gone; and so, after a rest, the males came a little nearer to the dark brown hens. Quarrelling ensued, and in the end all six birds flew away." Fancy seeing all that! I think it is wonderful that any of the birds stayed after the shot had been fired, and if another one had been, no doubt they would all have gone. Those travellers, you see, were a little better than most travellers are. They did not kill the birds (perhaps _they_ were _not_ naturalists), and the consequence is they have had something interesting to tell us about them. Still, I think if I had been there I should have had a _little_ more to say, and instead of just saying that the cock birds were dancing, I should have described _how_ they were dancing, and what sort of attitudes they put themselves into. And I think I would have waited at that place, and gone to those trees again very early next morning, all by myself, to see if those birds came back to dance there. Still, what these travellers do tell us is very interesting, very much more interesting than if they had only written, "Here we shot," or "Here we obtained another specimen of Paradisea Something-elsea"--which, of course, would be the Latin name. Naturalists like to tell us the Latin name of the animals they shoot. If they only had an English name I don't think they would care nearly so much to shoot them. How sorry we ought to be that animals have Latin names!