166 



THE SWORD-BILL HUMMING-BIRD. 



This curious species is rather large, as it measures about eight inches in length. It 

 inhabits Santa Fe de Bogota, the Carracas and Quito, and is generally found at considerable 

 elevations, having been often seen at a height of twelve thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea. The inordinately long bill is given to this bird in order to enable it to obtain its 

 food from the very long pendent corollas of the Brugmansise, and, while probing the flowers 

 with its beak, it suspends itself in the air with a tremulous movement of the wings. Its 

 movements are singularly elegant, and while engaged in feeding it performs the most grace- 

 ful manoauvres as it probes the pendent blossoms, searching to their inmost depths. The 



'U 



SWORD-BILL HUMMING-BIRD. Docimastet ensifer. 



nest, of this species is hung to the end of a twig, to which it is woven with marvellous skill, 

 and its whole construction is very beautiful. 



The adult male bird is colored as follows. The head and the upper part of the body 

 are green, glossed with gold in some parts and with bronze in others, the tints changing 

 according to the light. The wings are dark black -brown with a purple gloss, and the tail 

 is dark black, bronzed on the upper surface. Behind each eye is a small but conspicuous 

 white spot slightly elongated, and there is a broad crescent-shaped mark of light green on 

 each side of the neck. The under parts are of a bronze-green, and the under tail-coverts 

 are flecked with a little white. The female is of much the same color as the male upon 

 the upper parts of the body, except that there is a little white upon the lower part of the 

 back and a narrow white line behind the eye. The throat is brown, each feather being 



