sun beetle

Entom.: (See extract). "The metallic species of Amara and Poecilus are termed Sun - beetles , from their habit of running about foot-paths during hot, sunshiny weather." - West wood ; Cla . of Insects , 1. 85. sun-bird, s. 1. Anthrop.: An unidentified bird, mentioned by Rochefort ( Iles Antilles , bk. ii., ch. viii.) "When at midday the sunlight poured down upon the altar through the hole or shaft pierced for this purpose in the rocky vault of the cave, through which the sun -birds, the Tonatzuli, were let fly up sunward as me engers." Tylor: Prim. Cult . (ed. 1873), ii. 289. 2. Ornith .: A popular name for any of the Nectariniidse (q. v.), divided by Capt. G. E. Shelley ( Mono graph of the Sun - birds ), into two sub-families, Nec tariine and Promeropine, the former containing the Sun-birds proper, and the latter the Long-tailed Sun-birds. They are found over the whole of Africa, ranging through Palestine to India, thence through the Indian and Malayan Islands to Northern Australia, where a single species inhabits Cape York peninsula and Northern Queensland. They are small birds, in nearly every case of brilliant and metallic plumage, with a striking external resemblance to Humming-birds, with which they are not infrequently confounded, but differing from them in the structure of the feet and tongue, the shape of the sternum, and other important characteristics. They feed chiefly on insects, small berries, and fruit, and sip the juices of flowers, and from this habit the name of the type-genus (Nectar in i a) is derived. The majority of the Sun-birds build nests of an oval form, suspended from the branch of a tree at a considerable height from the ground, so as to be out of the reach of serpents and lizards. sun-bittern, s. Ornith.: Eurypya helias , from the northern parts of South America. It is about sixteen inches long; body small and thin, neck long and slender, head like that of a heron, with a long, powerful beak compre ed at the sides and slightly arched at the culmen; the plumage is minutely variegated with bars and spots of many colors. It is often made a pet by the Brazil i ans, who call it Pavao (Peacock), whence it is sometimes called the Peacock Heron.