SPLENDID SUN-BIRD. 
177 
the head and throat are steel-blue, in some lights 
appearing as black, in others as rich violet ; across 
the breast there appears in most lights a band of 
scarlet, but in some positions it appears as if banded 
with steel-blue, golden green, or violet, and at times 
to be almost entirely composed of one of those tints ; 
this is occasioned by the structure of the feathers, 
near the base the colour is of the metallic tints 
alluded to, but the tips of the plummules are length- 
ened into fine Vermillion tips without barbs, which 
are so slender as sometimes to be entirely lost when 
seen against the dark tint of the feather lying be- 
vol. v. 
M 
