464 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
The Promerops are distinguished from the other Upupine by the 
absence of the crest, by their very long tail, and by their forked 
and extensible tongue. They are natives of Africa, and their habits 
are little known. 
The Epimachus are remarkably beautiful birds. When at maturity 
the side-feathers develop themselves in delicate lines or elegant 
panicles, while their plumage, richly coloured, is brilliant with 
‘ diaphanous metallic reflections. 
Little is known of their habits. 
They are natives of Australia 
and New Guinea. The very 
remarkable species, £. mudtifil, 
has six long fillets on each side 
of its body. The equally 
striking species, 2. magnus 
(Fig. 185), has the elongated 
side-feathers raised and curling, 
of a glittering steel blue, azure, 
and emerald green ; the breast 
and belly lustrous with the same 
diaphanous tints. This bird is 
an inhabitant of New Guinea. 
The Humming-birds (7Z7o. 
chilide) may be divided into those 
that have the beak straight, and 
those having the beak curved. 
With this slight difference, the 
Fig. 185.—Epimachus. Trochilide and Colibri closely 
resemble each other. They have 
the same slight, elegant figure, the same brilliancy of plumage, and 
the same habits—describe the one, and you describe the other. We 
must be permitted, therefore, to treat of them together. 
The Humming-birds are the most lovely of the winged race. 
Nature seems to have endowed them with her rarest gifts. In crea- 
ting them she surpassed herself, and exhausted all the charms at 
her disposal ; for she imbued them with grace, elegance, rapidity of 
motion, magnificence of plumage, and indomitable courage. What 
can be more delighful than the sight of these little feathered beauties, 
flashing with the united fires of the ruby, the topaz, the sapphire, and 
the emerald, flying from flower to flower amid the richest tropical 
vegetation? Such are the lightness and rapidity of some of the 
smaller species, that the eye can scarcely follow the quick beat of 
