rising land in the interior, the blue and
green, the smallest brown, no bigger than the humblebee, with two long
feathers in the tail, and the little forked-tail purple-throated
humming-birds, glitter before you in ever-changing attitudes. One
species alone never shows his beauty to the sun; and were it not for his
lovely shining colours, you might almost be tempted to class him with the
goat suckers on account of his habits. He is the largest of all the
humming-birds, and is all red and changing gold-green, except the head,
which is black. He has two long feathers in the tail, which cross each
other, and these have gained him the name of karabimiti, or ara
humming-bird, from the Indians. You will never find him on the
sea-coast, or where the river is salt, or in the heart of the forest,
unless fresh water be there. He keeps close by the side of woody
fresh-water rivers and dark and lonely creeks. He leaves his retreat
before sunrise to feed on the insects over the water; he returns to it as
soon as the sun's rays cause a glare of light, is sedentary all day long,
and comes out again for a short time after sunset. He builds his nest on
a twig over the water in the unfrequented creeks; it looks like tanned
cow-leather.

As you advance towards the mountains of Demerara, other species of
humming-birds present themselves before you. It seems to be an erroneous
opinion that the humming-bird lives entirely on honey-dew. Almost every
flower of the tropical climate contains insects of one kind or other;
now, the humming-bird is most busy about the flowers an hour or two after
sunrise and after a shower of rain, and it is just at this time that the
insects come out to the edge of the flower in order that the sun's rays
may dry the nocturnal dew and rain which they have received. On opening
the stomach of the humming-bird, dead insects are almost always found
there.

Next to the humming-birds, the cotingas display the gayest plumage. They
are of the order of passeres, and you number five species betwixt the
sea-coast and the rock Saba. Perhaps the scarlet cotinga is the richest
of the five, and is one of those birds which are found in the deepest
recesses of the forest. His crown is flaming red; to this abruptly
succeeds a dark shining brown, reaching half-way down the back: the
remainder of the back, the rump, and tail, the extremity of which is
edged with black, are a lively red; the belly is a somewhat lighter re