Chapter X: Beauty

Delight in Beauty -- Divine Appreciation of it -- Magnificent Flower in
a Thicket -- Beauty of Deer -- Pet Fawn -- Eye of Gazelle -- Spotted Fur
-- Zebra-stripes -- Birds -- Spoonbills on the Amazon -- Carolina
Parakeet -- Cock of the Rock -- Soft blending in the Goatsuckers --
Resplendent Trogon -- Metallic Colours -- Rifle-bird -- Plume-birds --
Iridescent Hues -- Sun-birds -- Humming-birds -- Mexican Names --
Jamaican Humming-birds -- Mango -- Long-tail -- Cause of changeable
Lustre -- Angle of Light -- Other Examples -- Region of the Amazon and
Rio Negro -- Birds -- Fiery Topaz Humming-bird -- Cerro of Potosi --
Night-blowing Cactus -- Bar-tail Comet -- Pheasant tribe -- Chinese
Pheasants -- Fire-back of Java -- Argus of Malacca -- Impeyan of India
-- Polyprectons -- Peacock -- Wild Peacock-shooting -- Paradise-birds --
Emerald -- His Vanity in Dress -- Splendour of Insects -- Metallic
Beetles -- Soft Refulgence -- Gem-scales -- Butterflies -- Changes of
Hue -- Opalescence -- Ray on the "_Cui bono?_" -- Smith on South
American Butterflies -- Splendour of Spiders -- in Jamaica -- in Borneo
-- Tortoise-beetles -- Beauty of Plants -- Mosses -- Ferns -- Palms --
Grasses -- Bamboo -- in Jamaica -- in Madagascar -- Plantains -- Scene
in Tahiti -- Beauty exceeds our Power of Imbibing it -- Flowers --
Orchideae -- Sobralia -- Cypripedium -- Anaectochilus -- Dendrobium --
Huntleya -- Scene in Guiana -- Death of Reiss -- Rhododendrons of
Himalayas -- of Borneo -- Lightning-tree of Madagascar -- Flamboyant --
Barbadoes Pride -- Burmese tree -- Le Bois Immortel -- Scene in Tartary
-- Microscopic Beauties of London Pride, 302

XI. PARASITES.

Fleas on fleas _ad infinitum_ -- Intestinal Worms -- Economy of
Creation -- Epiphyte Vegetation -- Life in a Sea-weed -- Orchids in the
Tropics -- Parasitic Fig-trees -- Lianes -- in Ceylon -- Parasitism in
Insects -- Ichneumons -- Kirby's Discovery of Stylops -- Economy --
Oil-beetle -- Medusa and Shrimp -- Medusa parasitic on Medusa -- Fish in
Stomach of Star-fish -- Crab and Sponge -- Hermit Crab and Polype --
Parasites in Corals -- Ostrich parasitic on Ostrich -- Cuckoo and Cowpen
birds -- Veneration of Small Birds for Cuckoo -- Slavery among Ants --
Nigger-hunting, 359

APPENDIX.

Sea-serpent -- Additional Testimonies to its Existence -- Statement of
Consul Grattan -- Communication from Mr Stephen Cave, 387

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE PAGE

I. FASCINATION (_Frontispiece_).

II. ENCOUNTER WITH A MOA, 36

III. SPEARING THE ANCIENT ELK, 56

IV. THE CLIMBING PERCH, 122

V. TOAD IN A HOLE, 158

VI. BIRD-EATING SPIDER, 240

VII. SNAKE-CHARMING, 278

VIII. ANTELOPES, 304

IX. PLUME-BIRD, 310