388 THE SUN-BIRDS. 



by the wings of the Trochilidee. Occasionally, I have 

 seen them clinging by their feet and tail, busily engaged 

 in rifling, of their insects and nectar, the blossoms of the 

 trees ; in the stomachs of many which I examined, were 

 the partially-digested remains of dipterous, coleopterous, 

 and tetrapterous insects. These lovely and active little 

 ornaments of the feathered tribe serve, by the rapidity of 

 their movements, and the brilliancy of their colours, 

 materially to enliven the monotony of a noon-day walk. 

 I well remember a certain dark-leaved tree with scarlet, 

 tubular flowers, that especially courted the attention of 

 the Sun-birds, and around its blossoms they continually 

 darted with eager and vivacious movements. In the 

 course of an hour's watching, I have counted more than 

 a dozen different species of Cinnyris, Nectarinea, and 

 Certhia, coming and going to and from this honied 

 banquet. The Sun-birds seemed particularly delighted, 

 clinging to the slender twigs, and coquetting with the 

 flowers, thrusting in their slender 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. In the vicinity of this tree, which was in 

 the town, were numbers of Sparrows, in their every-day 

 dress, apparently engaged in disdainfully contemplating 

 these gaudy-coloured birds of pleasure. Darwin's capital 

 description of the Humming-bird applies also to the 

 Cinnyrides : 



