FAIRIES

Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Diminutive fairies of one kind or another have been recorded for centuries, but occur alongside the human-sized beings; these have been depicted as ranging in size from very tiny up to the size of a human child. Even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans. On Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour.

Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are very rare in the folklore; even very small fairies flew with magic, sometimes flying on  stems or the backs of birds. Nowadays, fairies are often depicted with ordinary insect  wings or  wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes. Some depictions of fairies depict them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot.