THE FIEEY-TAILED SUN-BIKD. 



203 



feathers, are of a reddish-buff, each feather being tipped with black. The remainder 

 of the head, neck, and breast is purplish buff, and the upper part of the beak purple-grey. 

 Three semicircular black bands are drawn across the back, and the quill-feathers of the 

 wings are marked with broad bands of- black and white. The tail is also black, with the 

 exception of a sharply defined white semicircular band that runs across its centre. The 

 under portions of the body are pale yellowish buff, and the under tail-coverts are white. 

 In their colours the two sexes are rather different from each other, the male being of a 

 more ruddy hue than his mate, and having a larger crest. The total length of the adult 

 Hoopoe is not quite thirteen inches. 



As a general fact the Hoopoe is but a rare visitant to England, and has little induce- 

 ment to fix its habitation in so inhospitable a country ; for the persecution to which the 

 poor bird is subjected is nearly as severe at the present day as that which was suffered 

 by the Hoopoes in the old times when they wore their golden crowns. It seldom is found 

 in the northern parts of England, but in the southern and eastern counties is not 

 unfrequently seen. Many notices of these birds have been sent to the Field newspaper 

 and other periodicals which treat of natural history ; and it seldom happens that a year 

 passes by without several such notices. In Cornwall it seems to be more plentiful than 

 in any other part of England, and to be quite a familiar bird. 



FIEKT -TAILED SUN-BIRD. Xectarinia ignicauda. 



SUN-BIEDS. 



THE beautiful and glittering SUN-BIRDS evidently represent in the Old World the 

 h if mining-birds of the New. In their dimensions, colour, general form, and habits, they 

 are very similar to their brilliant representatives in the western hemisphere, although not 

 quite so gorgeous in plumage, nor so powerful and enduring of wing. They are termed 

 Sun-birds, because the hues with which their feathers are so lavishly embellished gleam 

 out with peculiar brilliancy in the sunlight. Our common sun-beetles of England, that 

 are so familiar to us as they run about the ground in the hot weather, their glittering 

 surface flashing rainbow-tinted light in every direction, have earned their popular and 

 expressive name in a similar manner. 



