PASSERINE. 



207 



The name Guit-guit is applied to certain small species, the males of which have vivid colours. Their tongue is 

 bifid and filamentous. Certhia ci/anea, Tern., and C. can-idea, Edwards, are American examples, to which we add 

 some eastern species, most of which are red,— the Ccereba, Vieillot. 



We may separate, however, the largest and least handsome of them, wherein the tongue is short and cartila- 

 ginous ; as the Merops rufus of Spix, which constructs a nest upon shrubs, arched over like an oven, and of which 

 M. Temminck forms his genus Opetiorhynchus, and M. Vieillot his Furnaritu. The Figulut of Spix does 

 not differ. 



Dic.eum, Cuv. 



The members of this group also do not climb, nor employ the tail : their arched and pointed beak, 

 longer than the head, is depressed and widened at its base. 

 They inhabit the East Indies, are very small, and have generally some scarlet on their plumage. 



In 



Melithreptus, Vieillot, — 



The tail is also not used, and the beak is extremely elongated, and curved almost to a semicircle. They 

 inhabit the South-sea Islands. 



One species (Certhia vestiaria, Shaw) is covered with scarlet feathers, of which the natives of the Sandwich 

 Isles manufacture the beautiful mantles of that colour, which are so highly prized. 



The Sun-birds (Cinnyris, Cuv.) — 



Do not lean on the tail ; the edges of their long and very slender beak are finely serrated ; the tongue, 

 which is capable of protrusion, terminates in a little fork. They are small birds, the males of which 

 have most brilliant metallic colours during the season of propagation, approaching the Humming- 

 birds in beauty ; of which, in this respect, they are the representatives in the Eastern Continent, 

 being found principally in Africa and the Indian Archipelago. They subsist on the nectar of flowers, 

 which they suck up ; are of a lively disposition, and sing agreeably. Their beauty renders them a great 

 ornament in our cabinets ; but the garb of the female sex, and of the male in winter, is so different 

 that the species are not easy to characterize. 



In some, the tail is even ; in others, its two middle feathers are elongated in the males ; and sonr.e are distin- 

 guished by a straight beak, or nearly so. [In most of the true Cinnyrides, the lateral tuft of feathers, so enor- 

 mously developed in the Birds of Paradise, exists, of small size]. 



The Spider-catchers {Araehnotheres, Tern.) — 

 Have the same long, arcuated beak, as the Sun-birds, but stronger and not dentelated ; their tongue is 

 short and cartilaginous, and the known species inhabit the Indian Archipelago, where they live on 

 Spiders. 



After all these distinctions, there are still other birds that should be separated from the great genus 

 Certhia, some of which are merely Philedons, with the characters of that genus more developed. 



The Humming-birds (Trochihm, Lin.). 



These diminutive birds, so celebrated for the metallic lustre of their plumage, and particularly 

 for the scale-like feathers, brilliant as gems, which offer a peculiar structure, have a long slender beak, 

 inclosing a tongue capable of protrusion upon the same principle as that of the Woodpeckers, and which 

 is split, almost to its base, into two filaments, employed, as is asserted, in sucking up the nectar of 

 flowers. They also, however, feed on small insects, for we have found their stomach filled with them. 

 Their very small feet, great tail, excessively elongated and narrow wings, and their very large sternum 



(fig. 9j) without posterior emargination, combine to produce a 

 mode of flight similar to that of the Swifts, besides which the Hum- 

 ming-birds balance themselves in the air by a rapid motion of the 

 wings, like many Flies. It is thus they hum about (lowering 

 shrubs and plants, and fly more rapidly than any Other bird. Their 

 gizzard is very small, and thej have no cccca, in which they ap- 

 proximate the Woodpeckers. They live singly, defend their nests 

 with courage [attacking, with their needle-like bills, the eyes >>f 

 an intruder, which renders these minute creatures truly formida- 

 ble], and tight with one another desperately. 



rig. 95.— Sternum of Humming-bird. 



