The GNOMES (Polytmus) are moderately large and powerfully built birds, with strong, medium-sized, and more or less curved beaks; the foot is furnished with short toes and long claws; the wings are slightly curved; the broad tail, which is scarcely longer than the closed pinion, has its two exterior feathers much shortened. The plumage is not remarkable for its brilliancy, being usually of a greenish or brownish shade above, and brown variously spotted beneath; the outer tail-feathers have light tips; the sexes are almost alike in colour.
THE SAW-BILL.
The SAW-BILL (Grypus nævius) is at once recognisable by its straight, powerful beak, which rises high at its base, and is twice the length of the head, and by its broad tail, the two outer feathers of which are short. Upon the back the plumage is of a pale metallic green, glowing with a reddish lustre; the brow and crown of head are dark brown; all the feathers on the mantle, except those on the wing-covers, are edged with reddish yellow; the sides of the neck are yellowish red; a narrow line that passes along the throat, the breast, belly, and rump are yellowish white, each feather striped with black; another pale reddish yellow line passes over the eyes; the quills are black, those at the exterior enlivened by a violet gloss; the centre tail-feathers are green and the outermost reddish yellow; the eye is dark brown; the upper mandible black, and the lower yellowish white; the foot is flesh-pink. The body is five inches and three-quarters long; the wing measures three inches, and the tail one inch and a half.
"The Grypus nævius," says M. Deyrolle, "is common in all the provinces of Santa Caterina, in Brazil, but is more frequently met with in woody situations than elsewhere. Its flight is exceedingly noisy, very vigorous, and capable of being sustained for a great length of time, the bird rarely alighting. Its cry is so loud and piercing as to be heard above everything else, while it flutters round the flowers of various species of orchids, from which it obtains its principal nourishment."
"In all probability," says Gould, "the serrations with which the cutting edges of both mandibles of this bird are furnished are expressly provided to enable it to capture with facility some peculiar kinds of insect food; perhaps spiders and small coleoptera. The nest sent to me by Mr. Reeves is precisely similar in size, form, and situation to those constructed by the members of the genus Phaëtornis, being of a lengthened, pointed form, composed of fine vegetable fibres and mosses, intermingled with which, especially on the lower part, are portions of dead leaves and pieces of lichen attached to the extremities of the leaves of apparently a species of palm."
The velocity with which these Humming Birds glance through the air is extraordinary, and so rapid is the vibration of their wings, that their movement eludes the sight; when hovering before a flower, they seem suspended as if by some magic power.
THE SICKLE-BILLED HUMMING BIRD.
The SICKLE-BILLED HUMMING BIRD (Eutoxeres aquila) principally differs from its congeners in the sickle-shaped formation of its powerful beak and its conical tail. In this species the back is of a glossy greyish green; the head and a small crest by which it is adorned are brownish black, these feathers and those upon the rump being edged with brown; the under side is brownish black, marked on the throat with greyish yellow and on the breast with white spots; the quills are purplish brown, the exterior secondaries tipped with white.
"It is evident," says Gould, "that the bill of this very rare and singular Humming Bird is adapted for some especial purpose, and we may readily infer that it has been expressly formed to enable this species to obtain its food from the deep and remarkably-shaped blossoms of the various orchidaceous and other plants, with curved, tubular flowers, so abundant in the country the bird inhabits, and for exploring which a bill of any other form would be useless." At present nothing is known of its habits.