The BRAZILIAN FAIRY (_Heliothrix auriculata_), a species inhabiting
Brazil, has an awl-shaped, delicate beak, small feet, furnished with
short, curved claws, long, slender wings, and a long tail, formed of
narrow feathers; the tail of the female is composed of broad feathers,
and rounded at its extremity. In the adult male, the back and sides
of the throat are bright copper-green, with a golden shimmer, and the
greyish black quills glow with violet; the under side and three exterior
tail-feathers are white, whilst those in the centre of the tail gleam
with a steel-blue lustre; a line of velvety black commences beneath the
eyes, and passes along the body, expanding as it goes, and gradually
merging in a blueish border that surrounds it. The male is six inches
and three-quarters long, with a tail of two inches and a half; the body
of the female measures four inches and a half, and her tail one inch and
seven-twelfths.
This beautiful bird is rare in Brazil, and in Guiana is replaced by a very
similar species; it has also several representatives in the western parts
of South America.
"Mr. Reeves," says Gould, "informs me that this elegant bird inhabits Rio
de Janeiro and Minos Gerves, but is nowhere very common; that it is not
met with in the immediate vicinity of Rio, but that it arrives in Novo
Fribourgo in July and remains till September. During its stay it evinces
a decided preference for the flowers of the orange-tree, which doubtless
afford it an abundant supply of some peculiar and congenial kind of insect
food. Its flight is both powerful and rapid. The nest is of somewhat
lengthened form, attached to the side of a small twig, and composed of
fine, dry, dark brown vegetable fibres, coated externally with small
flakes of pale olive and buff-coloured bark. Another example is of a still
more elongated shape, attached on one side to a slender vertical twig, and
composed of some cottony material, held together externally by cobwebs and
patches of grey lichen."
* * * * *
The FLOWER-SUCKERS (_Florisuga_) are distinguishable from the groups above
described by the formation of their straight beak, which is flat only at
its base, and towards its tip rises so considerably as to be higher than
it is broad; the powerful feet are feathered on the tarsi, and armed with
slightly-curved claws; the wings are long and slender, and the tail broad.