130 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
the sun, but it is not like steel that they gleam, for 
they are of the most lovely deep, rich, violet-blue that 
you can imagine, such a colour as was never seen 
anywhere else out of the rainbow; and now J come 
to think of it, what these lovely feathers are most 
like is two little violet rainbows set back to back. 
You can think how lovely they look as they go dart- 
ing through the air, and I must tell you that the 
beautiful violet-blue sends out gleams of other kinds 
of blues—lighter ones—which are just as beautiful 
as the violet itself. On the opposite page you see 
the picture of a Humming-bird that is a good deal 
like this one. But it is not the same, so the tail is 
not quite the same either. 
Now of course you will think—and you will be 
quite right to think so—that a bird that hasa tail like 
two little violet rainbows will have the other parts of 
him beautiful as well. Well, the back of this bird is 
all green—a beautiful, shining, gleaming green, and 
his head is green too—at least it seems to be when 
you see it first ; but, as you look at it, all at once the 
green changes into a heavenly violet blue, to match 
the heavenly violet blue of its lovely rainbow tail. 
Under the throat it is green like the rest, but just in 
the centre of it there is a tiny little drop—just one 
or two little feathers—of the very loveliest amethyst. 
Ah, fancy seeing a bird like that flying about and 
