Even the
keen eye of a hawk will fail to detect them, so closely do they resemble
the flowers they frequent. The sun-birds are fully aware of this fact,
for no sooner have they relinquished the flowers than they become
exceedingly wary and rapid in flight, darting arrow-like through the air
and seldom remaining in exposed situations. The black sun-bird
(Nectarinea amethystina) is never absent from that magnificent
forest-tree, the 'Kaffir Boom' (Erythrina caffra); all day long the
cheerful notes of these birds may be heard amongst its spreading
branches, yet the general aspect of the tree, which consists of a huge
mass of scarlet and purple-black blossoms without a single green leaf,
blends and harmonises with the colours of the black sun-bird to such an
extent that a dozen of them may be feeding amongst its blossoms without
being conspicuous, or even visible."[67]
Some other cases will still further illustrate how the colours of even
very conspicuous animals may be adapted to their peculiar haunts.
The late Mr. Swinhoe says of the Kerivoula picta, which he observed in
Formosa: "The body of this bat was of an orange colour, but the wings
were painted with orange-yellow and black.
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