124 The Gardens of the Sim. [ch. vi. 



slender green species, nearly six feet in length, infests 

 the fig-trees when in fruit ; and, twisting its tail around 

 a branch, it coils itself up ready to spring at any bird 

 unwary enough to venture sufficiently close. One of 

 these I saw shot ; and it had a double row of hooked 

 fangs in its wide set jaws, admirably adapted to hold 

 anything once within its grasp. 



Perhaps the most lovely and interesting of all, how- 

 ever, are the sun-birds, which are here in the East the 

 representatives of the true humming-birds of the Western 

 tropics. " 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 like 

 so many precious stones, and exhibit at every turn a 

 variety of bright and evanescent hues. As they hover 

 around the honey-laden blossoms, they vibrate their 

 tiny pinions so rapidly, as to cause a slight whirring 

 sound, but not so loud as the humming noise produced 

 by the true humming birds. Occasionally they may 

 be seen clinging by their feet and tail busily engaged 

 in rifling the blossoms of the trees. I well remember 

 a certain dark-leaved tree with scarlet flowers, that 

 especially courted the attention of the sun-birds ; and 

 about its blossoms they continually darted with eager and 

 vivacious movements. With this tree they seemed par- 

 ticularly delighted, clinging to the slender twigs, and 

 coquetting with the flowers, thrusting in their slender 

 curved beaks, and probing with their brush-like tongues' 

 for insects and nectar, hanging suspended by their feet, 

 throwing back their little glossy heads, chasing each 

 other on giddy wing, and flirting and twittering, the 

 gayest of the gay. Some were emerald-green, some vivid 

 violet, and others yellow, with a crimson wing.'' 



