Words are always felt to be too poor to describe the refulgence of the hues of many of the feathered tribes;--the metallic gloss of the Trogons and the oriental _Gallinaceæ_, the gem-like flashings of the Humming-birds and the Birds of Paradise. Perhaps it would be deemed extravagant to assert, that these glories can be _excelled_ by the tiny races I am now discussing; but equalled, _most fully equalled_, they assuredly are. To possess the glow of burnished metal upon the most varied hues, is, in the order _Coleoptera_, a common thing. Most of the _Eumolpidæ_ are remarkable for this; of which I may instance _Chrysochus fulgidus_, a beetle from Bombay. The _Buprestidæ_ have long been celebrated, for the same reason; and portions of their bodies have been used in the toilet of ladies, in association with diamonds and rubies. Many of the _Chlamydæ_ blaze with golden-crimson, purple, and the most fiery orange. The species of the small genus _Eurhinus_ seem to send forth the coloured flames of the pyrotechnic art. The _Longicornes_ display the same beauties, associated with gigantic size. _Cheloderus Childreni_, for example, a large beetle from Columbia, is equal to any _Buprestis_ for the radiance of the green, crimson, purple, blue, scarlet, and gold, that are all at the same time flaming from its singularly-sculptured surface. But there are impressions conveyed by the reflection of light from the bodies of many beetles, which far exceed the metallic fulgor of which I have been speaking, beautiful as it is. I cannot hope to describe them intelligibly; I know of no combination of words which will give an idea of them. I mean the soft, almost velvety radiance of some of the _Goliathi_; of many of the _Cetoniæ_, as the genus _Eudicella_, for instance; and of not a few of the _Phanæi_, in the former two, the hue is generally green; in the latter, this colour is associated with other hues, most glowing, yet of an indescribable softness. I cannot imagine anything of this sort more charming than the soft golden and orange hue upon the green of the magnificent _Phanæus imperialis_.