328 ZOOLOGY. 
A variety of species inhabit India, of which the most common appear to 
be the IV. zeylonica, mahrattensis, and others. 
Sub-fam. 2. Ca@rebine, or American Creepers. Bill generally rather 
short, wide at the base, curved or sometimes nearly straight, sides com- 
pressed. Wings long and pointed ; tail short, usually even; tarsi short ; 
feet moderate. Size small. Colors usually blue or green and showy. 
A sub-family of beautiful little birds peculiar to South America, said to 
feed upon the minute insects which frequent expanded flowers, about which 
they are observed to fly in the manner of humming birds. Their nests are 
suspended from the branches of trees, pear-shaped, composed of grass and 
woody fibres woven together, and with a tubular entrance from below. 
This mode of construction warrants security from monkeys, serpents, or 
other depredators. 
There are about twenty species of these birds, the most common of 
which are the Cereba cyanea (pl. 102, fig. 9) and cerulea, the Dacnis 
spiza, a beautiful green bird with a black head, and the Certhiola flaveola. 
Fam. 3. Trocnitip#, or Hummine Birps. Bill generally long, very 
slender, usually curved but sometimes straight, with the lateral margins 
of the upper mandible dilated. Wings generally long and flattened in a 
peculiar manner ; tail usually ample, truncated or cuneated ; tarsi and feet 
usually very small and weak. Size very small. | 
The most diminutive birds in existence, and among the most beautiful. 
Swainson gives the following description in Lardner’s Cyclopedia, Birds II. 
page 146, in his usual forcible and pleasant manner. “In speaking of these 
charming birds, the naturalist is almost tempted to abandon that didactic 
style best suited to his subject, and to clothe his information in the language 
of poetry ; yet both must fail in conveying to the mind an adequate idea 
of their surpassing beauty. The rainbow colors of the most resplendent 
gems are here superadded to a living form which in itself is exquisitely 
graceful and animated in all its movements. The flight of these pigmy 
birds is so rapid as to elude the eye; for a few moments they may be seen 
hovering over a flower, but as soon as they have supped its sweetness they 
vanish in an instant ; they may, in truth, be said to ‘come like shadows, so 
depart.’ ” 
This celebrated family of birds is exclusively American and very nume- 
rous, there not being less than three hundred species now known, to which 
almost every traveller in South America yet makes additions. 
Sub-fam. 1. Grypine, or Wedge-tailed Humming Birds. Bill long, 
slender, and curved throughout its length; culmen of the upper mandible 
distinctly keeled, tip acute, lateral margins dilated and overlapping the under 
mandible ; wings long and pointed ; tail long, broad, and generally cuneated ; 
tarsi short and very slender. Colors generally plain, not metallic. 
About thirty birds compose this sub-family. They are very distinct from 
the other sub-families of Humming Birds, and are nearly all remarkable for 
their plain plumage and long tails. They inhabit all parts of South America, 
but one genus (Oreotrochilus, Gould) contains species which are found 
only in the Andes, immediately below the line of perpetual snow. 
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