INTEODTJOTIOlf. 



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and seventy-six species of thiese Birds. They are all exclusirely 

 confined to America, but different species are so distributed 

 that the whole group may be said to range over that continent 

 from Alaska to Patagonia. 



Only second to the Humming-birds in beauty are the Sun- 

 birds, which are as exclusively confined to the Old World as the 

 Humming-birds are to the New. They are mainly African 



Pig. 106. 



The Metallic Sun-bird (Nectarinia metallica). 



forms, but they also range through India to Australia. The 

 Metallic Sun-bird {Nectarinia metallica') may be taken as a type 

 of the group, which embraces a hundred and five different 

 species, arranged in nine genera. They have long and slender 

 bills like the Humming-birds. 



Of those charming familiar little Birds known to us as Tits, 

 one of the most charming is the Blue Tit {Parus cceruleus), 



