Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/66

Rh called Swifts, after this manner:—bending a pin like a hook, and tying it by the head to the end of a thread, they thrust it through a Cicada (as boys bait a hook with a fly), holding the other end of the thread in their hand. The Cicada, so fastened, flies nevertheless in the air, which the Merops spying, flies after it with all her force, and catching it, swallows pin and all, wherewith she is caught."

The birds of this division have the beak slender, long, compressed, and frequently curved; not notched at the tip. The tongue is often divided at the extremity into two or more filaments, and is commonly used to suck or lick up the nectar of flowers, and to draw in with this honeyed liquid multitudes of minute insects, which constitute the solid portion of their nutriment.

The smallest of the feathered races are found in this Tribe, as well as the most brilliantly adorned; for many of the genera are clothed with a plumage of metallic lustre, and on particular parts of their bodies, especially the forehead and throat, with dense feathers of a peculiar scale-like appearance, which reflect the varying radiance of precious stones. The tribe is eminently tropical in its geographical distribution, although many species visit the temperate zones, and a few are permanent residents of high latitudes.

The tenuirostral Families are the five following:—Upupadæ, Nectariniadæ, Trochilidæ, Meliphagadæ, and Certhiadæ.