150 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
called hermits, not because they live in cells, because, 
of course, they do not, but because they have no 
bright things to wear, but only brown gowns, like 
hermits. But now as Humming-birds used once to 
be sunbeams, and are still /zving sunbeams that have 
been changed into birds, how does it happen that any 
of them have become hermits, with nothing showy 
about them? That is a thing which requires an 
explanation, so it is lucky that there is one all ready 
for it in the next chapter. Not all the things that 
require an explanation are so lucky as that. Some of 
them go on requiring one all their lives, and yet 
never get what they require. I have known several 
of that sort. 
