The RED BIRD, or GREAT PERICROCOTUS (_Pericrocotus speciosus_), the species we have selected as the representative of its family, is a magnificent creature, about nine inches long, and twelve inches and a half broad. The wings, in which the fourth and fifth quills are longer than the rest, measure four and a quarter and the tail four inches. The beak is short, broad at its base, and slightly curved. The tarsi are short, the feet delicate, and the claws much hooked. The plumage of the male is of a brilliant blueish black upon the back, quills, and centre tail-feathers; whilst the entire under side, a broad band across the wings (formed by a line of spots upon the outer quills), and the exterior tail-feathers are glowing scarlet. In the female, the brow, back, and upper tail-covers are greenish yellow; the quills dusky black, spotted with yellow; the centre tail-feathers tipped with deep yellow; the rest of the plumage is bright yellow, decorated with various dark markings. In both sexes the eye is brown, and the beak and feet black. These very beautiful birds are met with extensively throughout the greater part of India, particularly in Calcutta, Assam, and Burmah; they are most numerous in such localities as are 3,000 or 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. Like most of their congeners, they are generally active and social, usually gleaning their insect food from amongst the buds and blossoms of their favourite trees, and only occasionally descending to the ground or seeking their prey upon the wing. Jerdon tells us that whilst the business of the day is going on the males and females separate from each other, each sex associating in small parties of four or five birds, and carrying on their work in the most lively manner, hopping and climbing briskly about among the foliage, and constantly uttering their cheerful and penetrating note. The nest of the Red Bird found by the writer to whom we have alluded, was constructed of moss and delicate fibres, and contained three white eggs, slightly spotted with brownish red. Radde mentions a grey species, inhabiting China, the Philippine Islands, and Eastern Siberia, and tells us that the flocks which he saw, each numbering some fifteen or twenty birds, tumbled noisily about near the tops of the trees, and filled the otherwise silent forests with their shrill chattering cry. On the first approach of danger, these lively parties at once united into large flocks, and sought refuge in the highest trees, preserving meanwhile such unbroken silence as to render their capture a work of great difficulty. * * * * *