90 TENUIKOSTRES. 



})eiietrating into the nectary of flowers^ from which 

 they principally derive their subsistence. Their 

 tongue is extensible and bifid at the tip, thus 

 enabling them more easily to procure their honied 

 food ; insects, however, and perhaps soft fruits, con- 

 stitute a considerable portion of their diet. In the 

 breeding season the plumage of the male glows wdth 

 metallic colours, approaching in splendour those of 

 the Humming-birds, which indeed the members of 

 this family seem to represent on the continents of 

 the Old World, of which they are exclusively natives. 

 They resemble the Humming-birds in their man- 

 ners, and almost rival them in the brilliancy of their 

 appearance as they hover on quivering wings poised 

 in the air, ^vhile they bury their long slender beaks 

 in the corolla, from which they sip the sweets. 



" It was at Singapore, ^^ says Mr. Arthur Adams, 

 '' that I first had the pleasure of seeing these tiny 

 paragons of the East ; they are ethereal, gay, and 

 sprightly in their movements;^ flitting briskly from 

 flower to flower, and assuming a thousand lovely 

 and agreeable attitudes. As the sunbeams glitter 

 on their bodies, they sparkle like so many precious 

 stones, and exhibit at every turn a variety of bright 

 and evanescent hues. As they hover round the 

 honey-laden blossoms, they ^vibrate their tiny pinions 

 so rapidly as to cause a slight whirring sound, but 

 not so loud as the humming noise produced by the 

 Trochilidce (Humming-birds). Occasionally they 

 may be seen, clinging by their feet and tail, busily 

 eno^a^ed in riflino; the blossoms of the trees. I well 

 remember a certain dark -leaved tree with scarlet 

 flowers that especially courted the attention of the 

 Sun-birds, and about its blossoms they continually 

 darted with eager and vivacious movements. With 

 this tree they seemed particularly delighted, cling- 

 ing to the slender twigs, and coquetting with the 

 flowers, thrusting in their slender beaks, and probing 

 with their brush-like tongues for insects and nectar, 

 hanging suspended by their feet, throwing back 



