SOUTH AMERICA. 115 



species alone never shows his beauty to the sun ; and SEcoNii 



Journey, 



Avere it not for his lovely shining colours, you might almost — 



be tempted to class him with the goat-suckers, on account 

 of his habits. He is the largest of all the humming-birds, 

 and is all red and changing gold green, except the head, 

 which is black. He has two long feathers in the tail, which 

 cross each other, and these have gained him the name of 

 Karabimiti, or Ara humming-bird, from the Indians. You 

 never find him on the seacoast, or where the river is salt, 

 or in the heart of the forest, unless fresh water be there. 

 He keeps close by the side of woody fresh-water rivers, 

 and dark and lonely creeks. He leaves his retreat before 

 sunrise to feed on the insects over the water ; he returns 

 to it as soon as the sun's rays cause a glare of light, is 

 sedentary all day long, and comes out again for a short 

 time after sunset. He builds his nest on a twig over the 

 water in the unfrequented creeks ; it looks like tanned 

 cow leather. 



As you advance towards the mountains of Demerara, 

 other species of humming-birds present themselves before 

 you. It seems to be an erroneous opinion, that the 

 humming-bird lives entirely on honey-dew. Almost 

 every flower of the tropical climates contains insects of 

 one kind or other ; now, the humming-bird is most busy 

 about the flowers an hour or two after sunrise, and after 

 a shower of rain, and it is just at this time that the 

 insects come out to the edge of the flower in order that 



q2 



