PDF - Wallace Online

HUMMING-BIRDS 315iridescent, refulgent, celestial, glittering, shining, are constantlyused to name or describe the different species.No less remarkable than the colours are the varied developmentsof plumage with which these birds are adorned. Thehead is often crested in a variety of ways ;either a simpleflat crest, or with radiating feathers, or diverging into twohorns, or spreading laterally like wings, or erect and bushy,or recurved and pointed like that of a plover. The throatand breast are usually adorned with broad scale-like feathers,or these diverge into a tippet, or send out pointed collars, orelegant frills of long and narrow plumes tipped with metallicspots of various colours. But the tail is even a more variedand beautiful ornament, either short and rounded, but purewhite or some other strongly contrasted tint ;or with shortpointed feathers forming a star; or with the three outerfeathers on each side long and tapering to a point ;or larger,and either square or round, or deeply forked or acutelypointed; or with the two middle feathers excessively longand narrow ;or with the tail very long and deeply forked,with broad and richly-coloured feathers; or with the twoouter feathers wire-like and having broad spoon-shaped tips.All these ornaments, whether of the head, neck, breast, ortail, are invariably coloured in some effective or brilliantmanner, and often contrast strikingly with the rest of theplumage. Again, these colours often vary in tint accordingto the direction in which they are seen. In some species theymust be looked at from above, in others from below ;in somefrom the front, in others from behind, in order to catch the fullglow of the metallic lustre ; hence, when the birds are seen intheir native haunts, the colours come and go and change withtheir motions, so as to produce a startling and beautiful effect.The bill differs greatly in length and shape, being eitherstraight or gently curved, in some species bent like a sickle,in others turned up like the bill of the avoset. It is usuallylong and slender, but in one groupis so enormously developedthat it is nearly the same length as the rest of the bird. Thelegs, usually little seen, are in some groups adorned withglobular tufts of white, brown, or black down, a peculiaritypossessed by no other birds. The reader will now be in aposition to understand how the four hundred species of