VELVET, GREEN FEATHER-THREADS 143 
not told you about 4zm I don’t think you would have 
been able to. 
Princess Helen’s Coquette (how proud he ought 
mabe wor ay mame Iike that!) is) a littl MHum- 
ming-bird something like the last one. He is a 
little smaller, I think, but whether he is a little 
prettier, too, or not gute so pretty, or only as 
pretty, all that I shall leave to you; it is you who 
will have to decide. His back is all of a golden 
green, and his head, which has a forked crest at the 
back of it like a swallow’s tail, is a beautiful, rich, 
dark, velvety green, so that would make a pretty 
little bird—would it not?—even without anything 
else. But he Aas something else—two or three other 
things in fact—which are so—oh, so very pretty. First, 
on each side of the back of the head—just under 
each fork of the little swallow-tailed crest—there 
is a little delicate tuft of feathers, which rise up and 
spread out upon each side in such a graceful little 
curve. But these feathers are not like other feathers. 
They are something like the “funny feathers” that 
the Birds of Paradise have, for they are quite thin, 
like threads, and an inch long, which (although it is 
not quite so long as those) is yet a good length when 
you think of what a little thing this little Humming- 
bird is. These pretty little feathers are of a deep 
velvety green colour—the same colour as his swallow- 
