HtL7nming- Birds ^ 
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contained in tliem as tlie story of the Loddigesia 
mirabilis. This is perhaps the most wonderful 
humming-bird known, and no one who had not 
previously seen it figured could possibly form an 
idea of what it is like from a mere description. An 
outline sketch of it would probably be taken by 
most people as a fantastic design representing a 
Loddigesia Mirabilisr 
bird -form in combination with leaves, in size and 
shape resembling poplar leaves, but on leaf-stalks 
of an impossible length, curving and crossing each 
other so as to form geometrical figures unlike 
anything in nature. Yet this bird (a single speci- 
men) was obtained in Peru half a century ago, and 
for upwards of twenty years after its discovery 
