THE BRAZILIAN FAIRY.
The BRAZILIAN FAIRY (Heliothrix auriculata), a species inhabiting Brazil, has an awl-shaped, delicate beak, small feet, furnished with short, curved claws, long, slender wings, and a long tail, formed of narrow feathers; the tail of the female is composed of broad feathers, and rounded at its extremity. In the adult male, the back and sides of the throat are bright copper-green, with a golden shimmer, and the greyish black quills glow with violet; the under side and three exterior tail-feathers are white, whilst those in the centre of the tail gleam with a steel-blue lustre; a line of velvety black commences beneath the eyes, and passes along the body, expanding as it goes, and gradually merging in a blueish border that surrounds it. The male is six inches and three-quarters long, with a tail of two inches and a half; the body of the female measures four inches and a half, and her tail one inch and seven-twelfths.
This beautiful bird is rare in Brazil, and in Guiana is replaced by a very similar species; it has also several representatives in the western parts of South America.
"Mr. Reeves," says Gould, "informs me that this elegant bird inhabits Rio de Janeiro and Minos Gerves, but is nowhere very common; that it is not met with in the immediate vicinity of Rio, but that it arrives in Novo Fribourgo in July and remains till September. During its stay it evinces a decided preference for the flowers of the orange-tree, which doubtless afford it an abundant supply of some peculiar and congenial kind of insect food. Its flight is both powerful and rapid. The nest is of somewhat lengthened form, attached to the side of a small twig, and composed of fine, dry, dark brown vegetable fibres, coated externally with small flakes of pale olive and buff-coloured bark. Another example is of a still more elongated shape, attached on one side to a slender vertical twig, and composed of some cottony material, held together externally by cobwebs and patches of grey lichen."
The FLOWER-SUCKERS (Florisuga) are distinguishable from the groups above described by the formation of their straight beak, which is flat only at its base, and towards its tip rises so considerably as to be higher than it is broad; the powerful feet are feathered on the tarsi, and armed with slightly-curved claws; the wings are long and slender, and the tail broad.
THE PIED JACOBIN.
The PIED JACOBIN (Florisuga atra) is almost entirely of a rich velvety black, with the exception of the vent and legs; the wing-covers are of a dull green, shaded with violet; the centre tail-feathers black with a blueish gloss, whilst those at the exterior are white tipped with black. The female is of duller hue, and has the cheeks and often the entire head rust-red; the feathers on her back are edged with yellowish red; the beak is deep black. This species is four inches and a half long; the wing measures two inches and two-thirds, and the tail one inch and a half.
"The true, if not the restricted habitat of the Pied Jacobin," says Gould, "is the eastern portion of Brazil, over which it is distributed from Pernambuco on the north to Rio de Janeiro on the south, from which latter locality and Bahia great numbers are sent to Europe." We are without particulars as to its life and habits.