EEATJTIFUL BIEDS. 
li 
even, but sometimes slightly forked. Oynantlius : 
with a cylindrical bill, more or less curved ; tail forked. 
Plicotliornis : with the bill considerably compressed, 
generally curved from the base ; tail graduated or 
cniieated. 
Another very beautiful family of birds succeeds to 
the Trocliilidce ; it is composed of the Sun-birds, 
Ciiinynd(^, inhabitants of the tropical portions of 
Africa and India. They are small birds, but are 
clothed with most brihiant plumage. The bill is 
very long, slender, and acutely pointed ; the margins 
in some of the species being dentated in the most 
regular manner ; their serratures are so small as 
scarcely to be seen by the naked eye. The tongue is 
formed into a bifid tube, or rather, as Mr. Swainson 
suspects, into two flattened filaments ; it is long and 
susceptible of protrusion. The feet are moderate in 
their dimensions, and the wings moderate in length 
and rounded. 
The gay and beautiful tints which are so strikingly 
developed in the Sim-birds, have caused them to be 
much sought after as ornaments to the person or 
museum ; a rich golden green, varied on the imder 
parts with steel-blue, purple, bright orange, or vivid 
crimson, decorates nearly all the species, and produces 
a brilliancy of colours only rivalled by those of the 
Humming Birds. It is only, however, in the pairing 
season tliat the male birds assume this metallic lustre 
of plumage. They feed on minute insects and, it is 
supposed, on the nectar of flowers, which they pro- 
cure by probing the honeyed calyx with their length- 
ened bills, whilst hovering on the wing. 
