SP1ENDID SUN-BIRD. 



177 



the head and throat are steel-blue, in some lights 

 appearing as black, in others as rich violet ; across 

 the breast there appears in most lights a band of 

 scarlet, but in some positions it appears as if banded 

 with steel-blue, golden green, or violet, and at times 

 to be almost entirely composed of one of those tints; 

 this is occasioned by the structure of the feathers, 

 near the base the colour is of the metallic tints 

 alluded to, but the tips of the plummules are length- 



ened into fine vermillion tips without barbs, which 

 are so slender as sometimes to be entirely lost when 

 n against the dark tint of the feather Iving be- 



