text:  The brilliant plumage of the birds in the gallery of natural history and particularly of the humming birds "from the far isles of the Western Sea " the splendour of which outshone even the gorgeous feathered tribes of his native East excited his admiration to the highest degree--"animals likewise from every country of the earth were placed around and might have been mistaken for living beings from the gloss of their skins and the brightness of their eyes