IMPERSONATIONS OF CAPRICE. 
93 
their restless life, hovering above a balmy flower, or 
darting arrow-like from plant to plant, or contend- 
ing witli one another in mimic strife ? How must 
their charms be enhanced, for instance, when the 
traveller finds them gathering round the scented 
blossoms of the orange-trees ! How like winged 
elves they must appear when whirring about the 
flowering bushes in the hush and calm of a tropical 
'to 
evening ! 
While they are more beautiful than other birds, 
they differ from all other birds in their movements. The eye can 
scarcely follow them in their arrowy flights ; when they pause before a 
flower, it is only for a moment. They poise themselves unsteadily, 
moving their wings with almost incredible swiftness ; thrust their long 
sharp bill into the chaliced sweets ; and away they hasten to pastures 
new. They seem the very impersonations of caprice — embodiments of 
whim; now here, now there; skipping from one part of the tree to 
another, without any pretence at method or regularity. Sometimes a 
couple of males engage in open combat, mounting upwards as they 
fight, in the manner of insects when similarly engaged ; and then sud- 
denly thinking better of it, and returning to their work, which seems 
less work than play. They stop to rest sometimes ; and yet when 
perched for a while, and apparently bent upon repose, will intrude 
their inquisitive bills into any flower which happens to bloom within 
reach. Are they birds, or are they insects, or something between the 
two ? Physically, they belong to the feathered race ; but the metallic 
gleam of their bright-coloured plumage, the lack of expression in their 
