94 TENUIROSTEES. 



give it a close resemljlance to tlie tree in wliicli it is placed. 

 One species has even been known to make a thick spieler's 

 web the foundation of its domicile, and to cover it with 

 little bits of moss, lichens, paper, cloth, and all kinds of 

 miscellaneous substances, so as entirely to destrijy its nest- 

 like appearance, and make it look like a chance bundle of 

 scraps among the branches. 



" My house in Colombo," says Sir James Emerson 

 Tennent, " as is usual in the East, was surrounded by a 

 verandah, up which crept, in trojiical profusion, several 

 species of Passiflora ; to the flowers of these came the 

 various JSTectariniae for their morning and evening meals, 

 rarely appearing in the heat of the day. They hovered 

 about the starry flowers, thrusting in their curved bills, 

 in search of the minute insects on which they feed; occa- 

 sionally they would fly into the verandah and seize a 

 small spider from its web, or from the crevices of the 

 walls ; then they would betake themselves to the passion- 

 flowers, or to the branches of a pomegranate close by, 

 where they plumed themselves and uttered a pleasing song. 

 If two happened to come to the same flower — and from 

 their numbers this has often occurred — a battle always 

 ensued, which ended in the vanquished bird retreating from 

 the spot with shrill ^^iping cries, while the conqueror would 

 take up his position upon a flower or stem, and swinging 

 his little body to and fro till his coat of burnished steel 

 gleamed and glistened in the sun, pour out his note of 

 triumph. All this time the wings were expanded and 

 closed alternately, every jerk of the body in iV. Asiatica 

 and iV^. Latenia disclosing the brilliant yellow plumelets 

 on either side of the breast." 



