is of a pale green colour with a pinkish; spot,
and has long slender tails. It measures about 8 inches across the
fore-wings, and nearly as much from shoulder to the tip of the tail.

* * *

Other insects numerously represented in Sikkim are beetles, bugs,
grasshoppers, praying insects, walking-stick insects, dragon-flies,
ants, lantern-flies, cicadae, etc.

* * *

Plant life and insect life are abundant enough, but of birds there
seem to be comparatively few. As we travel through the forest we do
not notice many of them, and we do not hear many. We do not
everywhere find great flocks of birds as we see swarms of insects.
And we do not find the forest resounding with the songs of birds as
it does with the hum and crackle of insects. In this respect we are
disappointed.

But the birds of Sikkim, if few in number, are great in variety. Birds
feed on fruits, berries, seeds, insects, grubs, caterpillars, small
animals, and even little birds. Some birds like a still, hot, damp
climate. Other birds like a cold, dry climate. Some birds like the
shade and quiet and protection of the forest. Others like the open and
the sunshine. Some birds find their food in the water, others on the
land. And the Sikkim Himalaya, from the plains to the mountains,
provides such a rich variety of plant and insect life, such a variety of
climate and of country, and so plentiful a supply of water, that birds
of the widest difference of requirements can here be provided with
their needs.

Consequently birds of numerous different species make Sikkim their
habitat, either permanently or for certain seasons of the year. And
Gammie, who has specially studied the natural history of Sikkim,
says in the "Sikkim Gazetteer" that in no part of the world of an
equal area are birds more profusely represented in species. The birds
may not be so numerous as in other parts, but they are more varied.
Between five and six hundred species are represented, varying from
the great vulture known as the lammergeyer, which is 9 1/2 feet
across the outstretched wing, down to the tiny flower-pecker, barely
exceeding 3 inches from the end of its beak to the tip of its tail.

Of the birds found in the forest itself, the honey-suckers or sun-birds
are perhaps the most beautiful. There are no gorgeous birds of
paradise, and even resplendent parrots are not very numerous. But
these little sun-birds glitter like jewels among the leafy foliage, and
the lustrous metallic