XIII 
THE COLOURS OF BIRDS 
275 
colours which are especially characteristic of hum¬ 
ming-birds, however, occur, as is well known, in 
patches of extraordinary brilliancy either on the 
head as a crest, or on the lower surface, especially of 
the throat. The feathers forming these patches are 
peculiarly modified, and may display any of the 
colours of the spectrum including ruby-red and 
golden-yellow—the colours which are so markedly 
absent from the metallic feathers of sun-birds. The 
lectrices of humming-birds not infrequently display 
metallic colour, which may be distributed over the 
whole feather, or may be limited to a transverse band 
near the tip. Longitudinal bands of metallic colour 
like those of the sun-birds do not seem to occur. 
Pigmental colours among humming-birds are not 
remarkable for brightness of tint, being usually shades 
of gray or dull brown. The only marked exception 
is the colour called by systematists “ rich chestnut ” 
or cinnamon, which is often limited to the males, 
as, for example, in Eustephanus fernandensis. In 
this connection it may be noticed that not only 
are metallic tints almost invariably absent from the 
wings, but where, as in the above species, the male 
as compared with the female is characterised by the 
development of a special pigmental colour, this pig¬ 
ment is entirely absent from the wing-quills, though 
present in the wing-coverts. 
As an exception to the general rule that the 
humming-birds display great brilliancy, we find that 
the so-called “ hermit ” forms which live in the deep 
shades of the forests are only soberly tinted, with 
little metallic colour; of these the genus Phcethornis 
may be taken as a type. 
