[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS a small bird measuring no more than twelve inches from the sharp point of the bill to the end of the tail. The bill is sharp, black, and somewhat bending; Nature seems to have sat down with pleasure and enjoyed her work when she was forming the moving and most beautiful crest which adorns the head of this bird; it is a kind of bright halo, whose radiation places the head nearly in the centre of a golden circle. This pleasing ornament, which the bird sets up or lets fall at pleasure, is composed of a double row of feathers reaching from the bill to the nape of the neck, which is of a pale red. The breast is white with black strokes tending downwards; the wings and back are varied with white and black cross lines. This beautifully crested bird is not very common in this country. In Egypt they are often seen in small flocks. The female makes no nest, and lays five or six eggs in the hollow of a tree without any sort of preparation.
