[Illustration: THE OCELLATED PHEASANT (_Rheinardius ocellatus_).] The true rectrices are twelve in number. They are all absolutely plane, all spread out horizontally, and they go on increasing in length from the exterior to the middle. They are quite wide at the point of insertion, increase in diameter at the middle, and afterward taper to a sharp point. Altogether they form a tail of extraordinary length and width which the bird holds slightly elevated, so as to cause it to describe a graceful curve, and the point of which touches the soil. The beak, whose upper mandible is less arched than that of the pheasants, exactly resembles that of the arguses. It is slightly inflated at the base, above the nostrils, and these latter are of an elongated-oval form. In the bird that I have before me the beak, as well as the feet and legs, is of a dark rose-color. The legs are quite long and are destitute of spurs. They terminate in front in three quite delicate toes, connected at the base by membranes, and behind in a thumb that is inserted so high that it scarcely touches the ground in walking. This magnificent bird was captured in a portion of Tonkin as yet unexplored by Europeans, in a locality named Buih-Dinh, 400 kilometers to the south of Hué.--_La Nature_. * * * * * THE MAIDENHAIR TREE. The Maidenhair tree--Gingkgo biloba--of which we give an illustration, is not only one of our most ornamental deciduous trees, but one of the most interesting. Few persons would at first sight take it to be a Conifer, more especially as it is destitute of resin; nevertheless, to that group it belongs, being closely allied to the Yew, but distinguishable by its long-stalked, fan-shaped leaves, with numerous radiating veins, as in an Adiantum. These leaves, like those of the larch but unlike most Conifers, are deciduous, turning of a pale yellow color before they fall. The tree is found in Japan and in China, but generally in the neighborhood of temples or other buildings, and is, we believe, unknown in a truly wild state. As in the case of several other trees planted in like situations, such as Cupressus funebris, Abies fortunei, A. kæmpferi, Cryptomeria japonica, Sciadopitys verticillata, it is probable that the trees have been introduced from Thibet, or other unexplored districts, into China and Japan. Though now a solitary representative of its genus, the Gingkgo was well represented in the coal period, and also existed through the secondary and tertiary epochs, Professor Heer having identified kindred specimens belonging to sixty species and eight genera in fossil remains generally distributed through the northern hemisphere. Whatever inference we may draw, it is at least certain that the tree was well represented in former times, if now it be the last of its race. It was first known to Kæmpfer in 1690, and described by him in 1712, and was introduced into this country in the middle of the eighteenth century.