reddish eyes the while, and in ecstasy proclaiming, in tones as loud and
unmusical as her own, that life overflows with joy when mutual admiration
surcharges the breast.

The noise stays a company of metallic starlings in headlong flight from
the nest-laden tree in the forest to the many-fruited jungle. Though they
most conscientiously search the fronds of coco-nut palms for
insignificant grubs and caterpillars, starlings do not hawk for insects.
Held up by the excitement--for by this time other birds have darted to the
feast--the starlings alight among the plumes of the laburnum,
interrogating in acidulous tones, their black, burnished, iridescent
feathers and flame-hued eyes making a picture of rare vividness and
beauty.

How thin becomes the throng! Last night's shower, the morning warmth of
the soil, have brought forth a gush of life that wheels and sparkles in
the sun and becomes bait for birds. Are droughts designed by Nature to
test endurance on the part of animal and vegetable life? Leaves fall from
evergreen trees almost as completely as from the deciduous, and even the
jungle is thickly strewn, while every slight hollow is filled with
brittle debris where usually leaves are limp with dampness and mould. The
jungle has lost, too, its rich, moist odours. Whiffs of the pleasant
earthy smell, telling of the decay of clean vegetable refuse, do issue
in the early morning and after sundown; but while the sun is searching
out all the privacies of the once dim area, the wholesome fragrance
does not exist.

Drought proves that certain species of exotic plants are hardier than
natives. Wattles suffer more than mangoes, and citrus fruits have powers
of endurance equal to eucalyptus. Whence does the banana obtain the