142 PALESTINE SUN-BIRD. 



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 round 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 Trochilidse. Occasionally they may 

 be seen clinging by their feet and tail, busily engaged in 

 rifling the blossoms of the trees. I well remember," he 

 adds, " 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 

 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 wino-, 

 and flirting and twittering, the gayest of the gay. Some 

 were emerald green, some vivid violet, and others yellow, 

 with a crimson wing." 



Next we must ask the reader to notice the Hoopoe, 

 which is not an uncommon visitor to our own islands, and 

 is found in most parts of Temperate Europe. His favourite 

 habitat is a wood bordering on a marsh or swamp, where, 

 among the bushes and reeds, and decayed stumps of trees, 

 he finds his insect food. He builds his nest of a few roots 

 of grass, mixed with feathers, and conceals it in the hole 

 of a tree. He feeds on grubs and worms as well as insects; 



