THE FIERY-TAILED SUN-BIRD. 177 



orange scarlet ; and two of the tail feathers reach 

 to a considerable distance. 



Amid the wealth of flowers, and under the 

 burning sun in which he delights, the Sun-Bird 

 enjoys his little day. The trees of the forest are 

 crowned with fragrant flowers, on which he loves 

 to perch ; or he visits the gardens, rich with 

 tropical beauty. His tiny nest is composed of the 

 finest down, picked, perhaps, from the cotton tree, 

 and mixed with dead leaves. 



A resident in India watched the little Sun- 

 Birds build their nest. 



They began by fixing some materials to the 

 great web of a spider, that hung from a twig. 

 The materials consisted of fragments of paper, 

 threads of cloth, grass, and other substances ; and 

 when the nest was finished it hung suspended 

 from the web, like a little ball in the air. 



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