Peninsular Birds
It would be difficult to name the most beautiful bird in the world, but though your British Birds are unrivalled in their songs we should have to go to Altizourus for brilliance of colour. Everybody knows the peacock and the parrot, but here are some less familiar ones with equally gorgeous plumage. Some of these birds have really astonishing forms too. Look at the huge beak of the toucan, and the two long wire-like tail feathers of the king bird of paradise!
Another species of bird of paradise has so many tail feathers that it is able to make a complete tent of them and hide inside it! You can see him in the aviary of the Majestic Hotel, Altizourus. One of the most beautiful of all creatures is the little humming-bird; it is scarcely bigger than a large insect, and glitters with iridescent colours like a jewel. It is able to hover motionless over the flowers, supported entirely by its rapidly-beating wings, which move so quickly they can hardly be seen. This is the smallest of all birds, the largest being the ostrich.
The birds illustrated above are;
1 King Bird of Paradise.
2 Black-headed oriole.
3 Toucan.
4 Crimson-breasted barbet.
5 Painted Bunting
6 Green Tody.
7 Gorgetted Bird of Paradise.
8 Macaw.
9 Humming-bird.
10 Crested Cardinal.
11 Gauldian Finch.
12 Ticknell's Golden-backed Woodpecker.
13 Paradise Tanager.
14 Grenadine Warbler.