270 THE SPARKLING-TAIL HUMMING-BIRD. 



others long and white. These start from the neck, being 

 edged with blue-black. Beautifully adorned as is the male, 

 the hen bird possesses neither crest nor neck-plumes, her 

 colour being of a dull, bronze green, and grayish - white 

 sprinkled with green on the under part of the body. 



THE SPARKLING-TAIL HUMMING-BIRD. 



The little sparkling-tail is one of the boldest and most 

 familiar of its tribe, being seen flitting from flower to flower 

 among the gardens in Guatemala, and remaining with perfect 

 confidence even while people are moving about near it. It 

 is one of the smallest of its tribe — the nest being also of 

 a proportionate size, formed of various delicate fibres, such as 

 spider's webs and cottony down, and covered with lichens. 

 Within it the female lays two eggs, scarcely larger than peas, 

 of a delicate, almost transparent, pearly white. This nest is 

 secured to a slight twig by spider's webs. 



The general colour of the male is bronzed green above, 

 with a crescent-shaped white mark on the lower part of the 

 back. It has a rich metallic blue throat, changing in certain 

 lights ; and the wings are of a dark purple-brown. The tail 

 is composed of feathers of different tints — the two central of 

 a rich, shining green ; the next, green, marked with bronze ; 

 and the outer, dark brown, with triangular white spots on the 

 inner web. 



The whole length of the bird, with its forked tail, is about 

 four inches. The hen has a shorter tail, the feathers purple- 

 black, bronzed at the base, and most of them tipped with 

 white and ringed with buff. The upper part of the body is 

 of a rich bronzed green ; and the lower, a rusty red. 



Many other beautiful humming-birds appear throughout dif- 



