BIRDS. 329 



season, and remain for ever in ignorance of those cool and 

 refreshing waters into which our own delightful visitants 

 are so often seen to dip their slender wings. 



The hoopoes resemble the swallows in their migratory 

 movements, but they are classed with the Tenuirostres, on 

 account of their slender bills. The common hoopoe, though 

 an African bird, has been several times shot in Britain ; 

 and the marchcur larguip of Lc Vaillant appears to belong 

 to the same genus, and inhabits the country of the Caffres. 



Nearly united to the last-named species are the prome- 

 rops, a limited but magnificent group, different species of 

 which are found in Africa, India, and New-Guinea. The 

 most remarkable of the African kinds is the red-billed 

 promerops (P. erythrarhynchus), probabN first described by 

 Dr. Latham, from a specimen in the collection of the 

 Dutchess of Portland. Its length, including the tail, is 15 

 inches. The general colour is black, glossed with red, 

 violet, and golden-green ; the red predominates on the 

 head, the golden-green on the wing-coverts, and the violet 

 on the back and tail. All the tail-feathers, except the two 

 in the centre, are marked near the tip by an oval white spot 

 on each side the web ; and several of the quill feathers of 

 the wings have also a white spot on their inner webs, near 

 the tip. The bill is long, slender, moderately curved, and 

 of a red or orange colour. The legs are also red. 



Although Africa cannot boast of possessing any of those 

 jewels of ornithology, the fairy humming-birds, which dart 

 like sunbeams among the flowery parterres of the western 

 world, — 



" And on their restless fronts 

 Bear stars, illumination of all gems;" 



yet the eye of the naturalist who has studied the unsur- 

 passed splendour of the soui-mangas, or sugar-eaters, will 

 scarcely desiderate any other beauty. These birds, belong- 

 ing to the genus Cynniris of Baron Cuvier, were formerly 

 classed with the creepers. They are distinguished by their 

 long and slender bills, the mandibles of which are finely 

 toothed or serrated on their edges ; and their tongues, which 

 are capable of considerable extension, are terminated by a 

 small fork. Several of the species occur in the Indian 

 archipelago, but the greater*" proportion are of African 

 Ee2 



