And I think if you saw this sweet little Humming-bird hanging in the air, with his breast all flashing and sparkling, and with his chestnut crest spread out above it, and his little chestnut and star-spangled wings flying out on each side of it, you would think him almost as pretty as a fairy could be. You would think his fairy-wings the real ones that he was flying with, because you would see them, whilst the other ones would be moving so quickly that they would be only like a mist or haze--a little night that he had made for himself for the star of his beauty to shine in. Now just try to imagine how lovely that little Humming-bird must be. Can you understand any one _wanting_ to kill him? But now that I have told you about that wretched little demon with his charms to send people to sleep, and those two bad bottles of his, or, rather, the powders inside them--apathy and vanity--I daresay you can understand it. If I had not told you about _him_ I don't think you would have been able to. Princess Helen's Coquette (how proud he ought to be of a name like that!) is a little Humming-bird something like the last one. He is a little smaller, I think, but whether he is a little prettier, too, or not _quite_ so pretty, or only _as_ pretty, all that I shall leave to you; it is you who will have to decide. His back is all of a golden green, and his head, which has a forked crest at the back of it like a swallow's tail, is a beautiful, rich, dark, velvety green, so that would make a pretty little bird--would it not?--even without anything else. But he _has_ something else--two or three other things in fact--which are so--oh, so _very_ pretty. First, on each side of the back of the head--just under each fork of the little swallow-tailed crest--there is a little delicate tuft of feathers, which rise up and spread out upon each side in such a graceful little curve. But these feathers are not like other feathers. They are _something_ like the "funny feathers" that the Birds of Paradise have, for they are quite thin, like threads, and an inch long, which (although it is not quite so long as those) is yet a good length when you think of what a little thing this little Humming-bird is. These pretty little feathers are of a deep velvety green colour--the same colour as his swallow-tailed crest--and there are three on each side, three little velvet green feather-threads, floating out on each side behind his head. On his throat there is a gorget of gleaming, jewelly green, much lighter than the other greens--more like emerald, but with a goldeny, bronzy wash in it, as well. Just think how beautiful that must be! And then, lower down on his throat, underneath the green gorget--as if all that were not enough for him--this Humming-bird has something else--we will call it a tippet--which flies out all round his neck, and, especially, on each side of it. A tippet or a ruffle--perhaps that is rather a