A PAIR OF FAIRY-WINGS 141 
most glorious, radiant green colour, and from it there 
shoot out—one on each side—a pair of the very 
loveliest and most delicate little fairy-wings that ever 
you “ever saw—for I feel sure that you never have 
seen anything at all like them. I do not mean, of 
course, that they are real wings, to fly with, no— 
it would be funny if a bird had wo pairs of thal 
kind—but ornamental ones, wings for the little hen 
Humming-bird, who has none, to look at and say, 
“Flow beautiful! How extraordinarily becoming!” 
Each of these dear little wings is made by a few 
delicate, long, slender feathers of a light chestnut 
colour, the same as the feathers of the crest, only, 
instead of being tipped with black, these ones are 
tipped with a spot of the same lovely green that 
there is on the throat and breast. The longest of 
them, which is in the middle, is nearly an inch long— 
which is very long indeed when you think how small 
the little birdie is—and it stands out a quarter of an 
inch beyond the two next longest ones on each side 
of it, and these are almost a quarter of an inch longer 
than the ones that come next. If you hold out your 
hand with the fingers spread out, and imagine the 
middle one a good deal longer and the little finger 
and thumb much shorter, then you will know the 
shape of these dear little fairy-wings; only, of course, 
feathers are much more elegant than fingers—even 
