CHAPTER: Vil 
Some very Bright Humming-Birds 
ONE of the most beautiful of all the Humming- 
birds (but we can say that of so many) is the 
Rainbow Humming-bird. It is very large for a 
Humming-bird, so what w// you think when I say 
that its body is about the size of a little wren’s, a 
bird which, perhaps, you had been thinking was the 
smallest bird there 1s. Why, a Humming-bird that 
is as big, or almost as big, as a wren is a very big 
Humming-bird indeed—in fact quite a gigantic one. 
But now, the tail of this Humming-bird is very differ- 
ent to a wren’s, and makes it look still bigger because 
it is so long—three to three and a half inches, I 
should think—and such a wonderful shape. It is 
forked, so you must think of a swallow first if you 
want to imagine it; but then you must imagine that 
the two feathers which make the fork of a swallow’s 
tail are curved outwards like two little scimitars, so 
that their tips are six inches apart from each other. 
Indeed they gleam as brightly as any scimitar does in 
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