COLLECTION OF BIRDS. 36l 



but less remarkable for the smallness of their 

 size. The malachite and shining sugar-eaters 

 present the most brilliant colours. The red 

 sugar-eater, or heorotaice of Levaillant {certhia 

 vestiaria), from the Sandwich islands, furnishes 

 those scarlet feathers with which the islanders 

 make mantles in high esteem among them. 



Amongst the sugar-eaters on the ninth and 

 tenth shelves, we should remark that of the 

 West Indies, which lives in sugar plantations, 

 climbs up the stems of the canes to feed on the 

 insects which it finds in the axilla? of the leaves ; 

 the certhia ccerulea and the c. cyanea, blue 

 creepers of the most beautiful ultramarine blue ; 

 the merops rufus 7 commonly called the baker, 

 because its nest which it builds on bushes has the 

 shape of an oven ; one of these nests is at the 

 bottom of the case. The wall-creepers (certhia 

 murarid) are on the eleventh shelf ; they inhabit 

 the south of France, but are sometimes seen fur- 

 ther north. The specimen with extended wings 

 was killed in the Jardin du Roi. The bee-eaters 

 are placed on the twelfth shelf; they are all 

 adorned with the most beautiful colours. We 

 will only remark that with a lilac head, recently 

 sent us from Sumatra by M. Duvaucel, and that of 

 Europe {merops apiaster), which also inhabits 

 Africa in all its extent from Egypt to the Cape of 



