592 Observations on the Humming-Birch 



Art. VI. Observations on the Humming- Bird. By Richard 

 Chambers, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Those beautiful and delicate little creatures, the jewels of 

 ornithology, which form the race of humming birds, have 

 always attracted the admiration of mankind. The ancient 

 Mexicans used their feathers for superb mantles in the time 

 of Montezuma; and the pictures so much extolled by Cortez 

 were embroidered with their skins. The nation of the Aztecs 

 call their capital Tzinzunzan, from the number of humming 

 birds in its vicinity, with which the statues of their gods are 

 adorned ; and the Indians of Patzquara are still famous for 

 this art. They compose figures of saints with the feathers of 

 the colobri, which are remarkable for the delicacy of the exe- 

 cution and the brilliancy of the colours. The Indian could 

 appreciate their loveliness, delighting to adorn his bride with 

 gems and jewellery plucked from the starry frontlets of these 

 beauteous forms. 



Every epithet which the ingenuity of language could invent 

 has been employed to depict the richness of their colouring : 

 the lustres of the topaz, of emeralds, and rubies, have been 

 compared with them, and applied to their names. " The hue 

 of roses steeped in liquid fire;" even the "cheveux de J'astre 

 du jour" of the imaginative Buffon, or beams or locks of the 

 sun, their name in the Indian language, fall short of their 

 dazzling and versatile tints. 



It was formerly imagined that these birds were nearly con- 

 fined to the tropical portions of the New World ; and, accord- 

 ing to our best information, that great archipelago of islands 

 between Florida and the mouths of the Orinoco, with the 

 mainland of the southern continent, until it passes the Tropic 

 of Capricorn, literally swarms with them. In the wild and 

 uncultivated parts, they inhabit those forests of magnificent 

 timber overhung with lianas and the superb tribe of Bigno- 

 niaceae. The huge trunks clothed with a rich drapery of 

 parasites, whose blossoms only yield in beauty to the spark- 

 ling tints of their airy tenants ; but, since the cultivation of 

 various parts of the country, they abound in the gardens, and 

 seem to delight in society, becoming familiar and destitute of 

 fear, hovering over one side of a shrub, while the fruits or 

 flowers are plucked from that opposite. As we recede from 

 the tropics, on either side, the numbers decrease; though 

 some species are found in Mexico, and others in Peru, which 

 do not appear to exist elsewhere. Thus, Mr. Bullock dis- 

 covered several species at a high elevation, and consequently 

 low temperature ; on the lofty table-lands of Mexico and in 



