258 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



are annually sold under that name. In fact, the birds are so tiny, 

 and the amount of flesh is so small, that very few persons care to 

 take the trouble and run the risk of skinning such minute crea- 

 tures, and content themselves with removing the inside, supply- 

 ing its place with cotton, inserting wires, as is customary in birds 

 stuffed according to the present fashion, fixing the birds in appro- 

 priate attitudes, and then drying them, trusting to the feathers to 

 cover deficiencies. Of course the soft and rounded cpntours are 

 lost by so rough a process, but as the general public that buys 

 stuffed birds is too uncritical to perceive such defects, and too in- 

 different to trouble themselves about them, even when pointed 

 out, the professional taxidermists have no inducement to waste 

 their time upon tedious and unremunerative work. 



"We now leave the Humming-birds, and pass to other inhabit- 

 ants of America. 



Still keeping to Brazil, we come upon another pensile bird, 

 called the Azure Cceeeba {Ccereha cyanea). This beautiful little 

 creature scarcely yields to any of the gorgeous humming-birds in 

 the glory of its plumage, and far exceeds many of them in the 

 fiery brilliance of its hues. Blue is the chief color in this Ccere- 

 ba, and, strange to say, different qualities of blue are found in the 

 same bird, without jarring with each other, so wonderfully are 

 they dispersed and so artistically are the various shades separated 

 by velvet-black stripes and patches. The greater part of the 

 body is rich azure, with the exception of a velvet-black stripe' that 

 runs round the crown of the head, and widens into a patch on the 

 back of the neck. The quill-feathers of the wing are also black, 

 and a black streak is drawn from the corner of the mouth to the 

 neck, enveloping the eye in its course. 



Separated from the azure blue of the body by the black streak 

 just mentioned, a large patch of feathers on the top of the head 

 grows and flashes with metallic splendor, and is of a vivid verdi- 

 ter blue. 



The nest of the Azure Coereba is pear-shaped in form, the hol- 

 low for the eggs and young being in the large rounded portion, 

 and the slender part of the pear representing the " tail" of the 

 nest, which is long and slender, like that of many birds which 

 have already been mentioned, except that instead of being solid 

 and pointed, it is hollow, and has the opening to the nest in the 

 extremity. In order, therefore, to reach the nest proper, the bird 



