Note 18 — Chapter XI · THE MUISCA TRAIL

The usual name given the humming bird by the people of Venezuela and Colombia is colibri. It is also known as the pajarito-mosca—little bird fly—or pica-flor—flower-nibbler. But the most beautiful and most picturesque names are those in use by the Indians, who seem to have a particular faculty for inventing appropriate epithets for whatever specially strikes their fancy. By them humming birds are called “The rays of the sun,” “The tresses of the day-star” and “Living sunbeams.” The poet Bailey has incorporated the last of these names in the couplet,