SUN-BIRDS. 



69 



the nectary with their slender beak, these glossy birds usually 

 glance in the sunshine like glowing meteors as they dart through 



Fig. 34.— The Sun-Bird. , 



the air from blossom to blossom. Their plumage glitters with 

 metallic effulgence, but the colours are not changeable in varied 

 lights like those of the humming-birds ; the feathers are not, in 

 fact, of that texture which produces innumerable facets such as, 

 in the humming-biids and other brilliant species, reflect the rays 

 of light at ever-changing angles : they are simply burnished. 



" It was at Singapore," says Mr. Arthur Adams, " that I first had the 

 pleasure of seeing these tiny paragons of the East : they are ethereal, gay, 

 and sprightly in their movements, flitting briskly from flower to flower, and 

 assuming a thousand lovely and agreeable attitudes. As the sunbeams glitter 

 on their bodies, they sparkle hke so many precious stones, and exhibit at 



