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TROPICAL AMERICA AND ITS ANIMALS 



False Tyrant- The false tyrant-birds, or Lipanginoe, in habits are partly like 



Birds. shrikes, and partly like tyrant-birds, and their food is chiefly insects. 

 The becards resemble tyrant-birds in the shape of the beak, and partly also in 

 colouring. A well-known representative is the inquisitor (Tityra cayana), in- 

 digenous to the north of South America, a bird about the size of the great grey 

 shrike, which it resembles in coloration and markings. 



Many kinds of picarian birds are characteristic of South America, 

 especially the tropical districts, among which are some allied to the 

 European nightjar. Of these so-called wood-nightjars there are half a dozen species, 

 confined to the tropics; one of them, the great wood-nightjar (Nyctibius grand is), 

 which is as large as a wood-owl, ranging from Cayenne to south-eastern Brazil 



Wood-Nightjars. 



RIBBON-TAILED HUMMING-BIRD. 



Humming-Birds. 



The most characteristic birds of South America, and more 

 especially the tropics, are, however, the humming-birds (Troc hit idee), 

 the largest of which are the size of a swallow, while the smallest scarcely exceed 

 a humble-bee in bulk. Humming-birds have thin, and in many cases disproportion- 

 ately long beaks, with narrow tips, and long tongues with which they suck in 

 their food. This tongue is extensile like that of a woodpecker, and cleft at the tip 

 into two flat strips. The food of these birds consists chiefly of the small insects 

 living in flowers, and also nectar sipped from blossoms. Those humming-birds 

 which visit open blooms have short beaks, while those frequenting funnel-shaped 

 or tubular blooms are provided with long beaks. When on the wing, humming- 

 birds dart from flower to flower, hovering in the air over each for a few moments. 

 Occasionally they may peck an insect from a leaf or a. spider's web, but their 

 slender beaks are not adapted for catching insects on the wing. Their beaks are, 

 however, of great use in building their nests, which are generally placed in the 



