They all turned to where he stood holding the bunch on his gun-barrel, and saw his eyes fixed upon something playing about—a great humble-bee apparently—which paused before one of the orchid blossoms.
The little thing was dull-looking, and they saw directly after that it was probing the flowers with a long curved beak.
“Humming bird,” cried Rob; “but I thought that they were bright-coloured.”
In an instant, as if it had heard his words, the tiny creature changed its position to such an angle with the sun that for a few seconds its breast glowed with gorgeous green and flame-coloured scales, which looked as if they had been cut out of some wonderful metal to protect the bird’s breast. Its wings moved so rapidly that they were invisible, and the beautiful little object seemed to be surrounded by a filmy haze of a little more than the diameter of a cricket-ball.
Again there was a sharp motion, such as is noted in one kind of fly in an English summer, when it can be seen poised for a few moments apparently immovable, but with its wings beating at lightning speed. And as the humming bird changed its position the breast feathers looked dark and dull, while its head displayed a crest of dazzling golden green.
It appeared to have no dread of the group of human beings close to it, but probed blossom after blossom as calmly as a bee would at home; and it was from no movement they made that it suddenly made a dart and was gone.
“Pretty creatures!” said Shaddy, smiling, and looking the last man in the world likely to admire a bird; “you’ve come to the right place for them, gentlemen. Those lads of mine would soon make blowpipes and arrows, and knock you a few down, or I could if you wanted ’em, with one of your guns.”
“The shots would cut them to pieces,” said Brazier.
“To be sure they would, sir, and I shouldn’t use none. I’ve knocked one down with a charge of powder, shot off pretty close, and other times with half a teaspoonful of sand in the gun. But I tell you what acts best, only you can’t do it with a breechloader. It must be an old muzzle gun, and after you’ve rammed down your powder very tight with a strong wad, you pour in a little water, and fire soon as you can. You get a shower then as brings ’em down without damaging your bird.”
“Let’s look at the jaguar skin,” said Rob; and stepping aside to where the boatmen stood in the broad sunshine, instead of gazing upon the tawny fur, with its rich spots of dark brown along back and flanks, shading off into soft white, he found, stretched out tightly by pegs, a sheet of unpleasant-looking fleshy skin, hardening in the ardent sunshine, which drove out its moisture at a rapid rate.