Pyrochick

It ranges the warm slopes at a confident trot, its flame-mane streaming, torching tough scrub to get at the seeds within and leaving little blackened patches that mark its foraging rounds. It has learned to spit small bursts of fire now, practicing on stones and, occasionally, on rivals who crowd its territory. Vain and energetic, it displays its growing plumage at any excuse, fanning the flames along its back at the least provocation, a youngster convinced, not without cause, that it is becoming something magnificent.