Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir…

Reeves's pheasants-Golden pheasants-Silver pheasants-Blue pigeons-Stabbed-breast pigeons-Widow birds-The horned Tragopan-The mandarin teal-Conjugal fidelity-Nicobar pigeons-Peacock pheasants-Pink cockatoo-The Ounderou monkey-A Pitta-Mr. Beale's gardens-Rare productions of the vegetable kingdom-Native drawings-Extortionate custom.

In the aviary, the beautiful _Phasianus veneratus_ of Temminck; the _P. Reevesii_ of Gray, now commonly known by the name of Reeves's Pheasant, was seen: it is the _Chee Kai_[21] of the Chinese. The longest of the beautiful tail feathers of this bird are six feet in length, and are placed in the caps of the players, when acting military characters: this I observed at Canton, where some of the beautiful tail feathers (rather in a dirty condition, like the actors themselves, who, in their tawdry and dirty dresses, remind one of chimney-sweepers in London on May-day) were placed erect, on each side of their caps, as a decoration. The Chinese do not venerate this bird, as was first supposed, and which may have caused Temminck to bestow upon it the specific name of _veneratus_; but it is superstitiously believed that the blood of this bird is possessed of poisonous properties, and that the mandarins, when in expectation of losing their rank, and being suddenly put to death by order of the emperor, preserve some of it, in a dried state, upon a handkerchief, on sucking which they fall down and instantly expire. I heard the male of this bird, in the aviary, utter a very sweet, mild, and harmonious, whistling note, as it strutted about proudly, arrayed in its elegant plumage; occasionally approaching near the wires of its habitation, to let the visitors notice and admire him. The ends of the longest feathers of the tail in the living specimen were broken, although in this place of confinement there is much extent for his movements; but the feathers are too long ever to expect them to be preserved perfect in any confined place.