262 
THE ROBIN REDBREAST. 
or oil, is semi-liquid, transparent, and without smell, and so 
pure that it may he kept a twelvemonth without becoming 
rancid. At a neighbouring convent, visited by these travel- 
lers, no oil hut that of the cavern was used in the monks’ 
kitchen, and it was never found to give to any dish a dis- 
agreeable taste or smell. 
Table XIII. (See p. 15.) 
Order 2. Passerine.— Tribe 7. Tenuirostres. 
The birds of this tribe, comprehending the rest of this division, 
are classed together, not so much with reference to the actual 
strength or weakness of the bill, as on account of its form, 
and comparative narrowness and length, which is seldom less 
than twice that of the head, sometimes straight, at other 
times more or less bent. In other respects, they differ very 
materially ; in fact, they have no connexion whatever with 
each other. Amongst them we find, of foreigners, the 
Humming-birds, and the genus Todus, much resembling 
Kingfishers, hut feeding on insects, instead of fish. Some 
species of the rest are British, such as the Hoopoe and Bee- 
eaters, both of which are, however, very scarce. 
Of the habits of one of the above genus, the Todus viridis, 
which, though of a beautiful green on the back, has a crim- 
son throat, whence it is called the Bobin Redbreast of Jamaica, 
an interesting account is given by a close observer of nature 
in that island. One which was caught in a net, and turned 
into a room, began immediately to catch flies and other minute 
insects that flitted about. At this employment it continued 
incessantly, and most successfully, all that evening and all 
the next day, from earliest dawn till dusk. It would sit on 
the edge of the tables, on shelves, or on the floor, ever glancing 
about, now and then flitting up into the air, when the snap 
of its beak announced a capture, and it returned to some 
station to eat it. It would peep into the lowest and darkest j 
corners and under the tables, for the round long-legged 
spiders, which it would drag from their webs, and swallow. 
