EXACT PLUMAGE.
The continual presence of so close a neighbour as Peter makes one realize how little in the ordinary course of open-air observation we come to know about the exact colouration of birds. Peter's beak has a wash of green on the top and a patch of red below. The wings extend so far beyond the tail that he looks black-tailed, not' white ; and the black points are delightfully decorated with arrow heads of white. The legs have a flush of pink as well as of yellow, and the grooming of the white and grey feathers of neck and body is singularly perfect. Peter is dressed with the greatest care in the very best of taste ; and his failing, which is greed, has not at all spoiled his complexion. It is an odd thing that the further West you go—so it always seems to me— the tamer the birds are. London doubtless has tamed the black-headed gull, and we all have our tame robins ; but how much tamer are the ordinary run of birds is one of the first things that strikes a visitor to a Welsh, and yet more certainly to an Irish, garden.
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