Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/72

Rh insects from the interior of flowers. The nostrils are short, oval, covered with a membrane, and opening only by a lateral slit. The wings are comparatively weak; the feet of moderate size, formed for perching.

With a few slight exceptions the Sun-birds are peculiar to the Old World, where they represent the Humming-birds, which are peculiar to the New. The typical genus which contains the majority of the species, and these, such as are preeminently distinguished for their lustrous beauty, is proper to Africa and India, extending through the great Oriental Archipelago. Some of the genera are spread over the Australasian and Polynesian groups of islands, and of these all are destitute of metallic radiance, and some are of sombre colours.

The beak in this genus is usually long, slender, and sharp pointed; the base dilated, and the edges minutely cut into regular saw-like teeth. The tongue is long and slender, the edges, for the whole length, turned over inwards, so as to form a double tube, the tip divided into two filaments, which are fringed. The wings are rounded, the first quill nearly obsolete. The tail is broad and rounded, with the middle pair of feathers more or less lengthened and narrowed.

These brilliant little creatures, as we have already observed, are found in Western and Southern Africa, and in the continent and islands of India, some of great beauty extending even to the alpine elevation of the Himalaya mountains.