BIRDS. 



291 



Macrochires. The goatsuckers, so called because it 

 was formerly imagined that they suck the milk of 

 herds, and the closely-allied whippoorwill are birds with 

 sober-mottled plumage. The nests are made among dead 

 leaves on the ground. The night-hawk, which is not a 



FIG. 241. 



o, sword-bill humming-bird (Docimastes ensifer); b, white-booted racket-tail 

 (Steganurus Underwoodi) ; c, c f , male and female tufted coquette (Lophornis 

 ornata). 



hawk at all, is of this order. The humming-birds, exceed- 

 ingly small, of which there are many species, are often 

 very beautiful, the minute feathers appearing as bril- 

 liant scales, having lustrous metallic reflections. They 

 have long beaks and very long tongues, which they 

 -thrust into flowers for the purpose of feeding on small 

 insects, and probably, also, on the nectar. 



