'J.'Z 



cassell's book of birds. 



and bright fiery orange towards the deep brown tip. The female is green on tlie manfle, and 

 spotted grey on the under side ; her tail is short, and its feathers of an uniform light red. 



"No combination of gorgeous colouring," says Dr. Tschudi, "can exceed that which is presented 

 in the plumage of this Humming Bird, as it appears and disappears like a dazzling flash of coloured 

 light. It haunts the warm, primeval forests, but is still more frequently found in the pure atmosphere 

 of the ceja-girded montanas." 



THE SAPPHO COMET [Sparganura SappJto). 



" One of the principal summer haunts of this bird," writes M. Bourcier, " is Chuquesaca, in the 

 interior of Bolivia, where it appears when the fruit-trees of the country are in flower, and is met 

 with in the greatest numbers among the flowers of the capulo, a kind of cherry-tree ; it also visits the 

 orchards and gardens of the city during the blossoming of the apple-trees. It is by no means shy, 

 and the males are constantly at war, chasing each other with the utmost fury, uttering at the same 

 time a sharp cry, whenever one bird invades another's territory." 



" Soon after the arrival ot these birds in Chuquerca," sa3's Bonelli, " the task of incubation 

 commences, and when the summer is over, both the old and young, actuated, as it were, by the 

 same impulse, wend their way southward, to -return again when the sun has once more gladdened 



