158 



NATUEAL HISTORY. 



the Bee-eaters there are none in this country. There is 

 a considerable number of species in Africa, Asia, and 

 Australia. 



260. The Tenuirostres have long slender bills, intend- 

 ed either for collecting the honey in the nectaries of flow- 

 ers, or for the capture of small insects, of which, when- 

 ever we examine flowers, we see so many in and around 

 them. Their wings are commonly long, but the feet are 

 slender, showing that they are to be mostly on the wing. 

 They are, for the most part, small and of delicate form, 

 and have great variety and brilliancy of plumage. They 

 are almost entirely confined to the torrid zone. There 

 are five families : the Humming-birds, Sunbirds, Honey- 

 suckers, Hoopoes, and Creepers. 



261. The Humming-birds, of which there are three 

 hundred species, are exclusively confined to America. 

 All but two or three are tropical birds. They are the 

 smallest and most brilliantly colored of the feathered race. 

 Their variety of shape may be judged of by the few spe- 



Fig. 129 Humming-birds. 



