ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 89 



upon the branches, defend, with a noisy croaking, their com- 

 mon nest, which is full of green speckled eggs. 



"Alarmed by this noise, or by passing travellers, numerous 

 families of little pigeons, often no bigger than a sparrow, 

 fly from bush to bush : the larger pigeons, seeking singly 

 among the bushes for food, hasten, alarmed, to the summits 

 of the neighbouring wood, where their brilliant plumage 

 shines in the sun ; numerous flocks of little monkeys run 

 whistling and hissing to the recesses of the forest ; the 

 cavies running about on the tops of the mountains, hastily se- 

 crete themselves under loose stones ; the American ostriches, 

 which herd in families, gallop at the slightest noise, like 

 horses, through the bushes, and over hills and valleys, ac- 

 companied by their young ; the dichotopus, which pursues 

 serpents, flies, sometimes sinking into the grass, sometimes 

 rising into the trees, or rapidly climbing the summits of the 

 hills, where it sends forth its loud deceitful cry, resembling 

 that of the bustard ; the terrified armadillo runs fearfully 

 about to look for a hiding place, or, when the danger presses, 

 sinks into its armour ; the ant-eater runs heavily through 

 the plain, and in case of need, lying on its back, threatens 

 its pursuers with its sharp claws. Far from all noise, the 

 slender deer, the black tapir, or a pecari, feed on the skirts of 

 the forest. Elevated above all this, the red-headed vulture 

 soars in the higher regions ; the dangerous rattle-snake hid- 

 den in the grasses, excites terror by its rattle ; the gigantic 

 snake sports suspended from the tree with its head upon the 

 ground ; and the crocodile, resembling the trunk of a tree, 

 basks in the sun on the banks of the pools. After all this 

 has passed, during the day, before the eyes of the traveller, 

 the approach of night, with the chirping of the grasshoppers, 

 the monotonous cry of the goat-sucker, the barking of the 

 prowling wolf, and of the shy fox, or the roaring of the ounces, 

 complete the singular picture of the animal kingdom in these 

 peaceful plains. ' 



ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD, Le petit 



Rubis de la Caroline. 



[Translated from " Lesson's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaitx Mouches."~} 



"Although this bird," says M. Vieillot ( Ois. Dores, p. 66.) 

 "lives for four or five months in the more northern parts of 

 America, — as it is to be met with at New York about the be- 

 ginning of May, and in Canada from about the end of the 

 month until the autumn, — yet it equals in beauty those which 



