72 Retrospective Criticism. 



refutation, it cannot possibly produce, in the space of one 

 short week, a series of feathers capable of supporting the bird 

 through the air. 



Again, the precocious flying of the young birds argues 

 precocity of feathers; and this would authorise us to look for 

 precocity of lustre in the male. But Mr. Audubon informs 

 us that the male does not receive its full brilliancy of colour 

 until the succeeding spring: and I myself can affirm, from 

 actual observation, that the additional plumage which adorns 

 some humming-birds does not make its appearance till towards 

 the middle of the second year. 



Were it necessary, I could show to naturalists their error, 

 in sometimes mistaking a male httmming-bird of the first 

 year for a fuU-plumaged female. I am fully satisfied in my own 

 mind that the internal anatomy of all humming-birds is pre- 

 cisely the same, except in size ; having found it the same in 

 every humming-bird which I dissected in Guiana and Brazil. 

 Now, as the young of the humming-birds in these countries 

 require more than a week to enable them to fly, and as Mr. 

 Audubon's humming-bird differs not in internal anatomy from 

 them, I see no reason why the young of his species should 

 receive earlier powers of flying than the young of the hum- 

 ming-birds in the countries just mentioned. 



A word on the cradle. Mr. Audubon tells us that the 

 little pieces of lichen, used in forming the nest of the humming- 

 bird, " are glued together with the saliva of the bird." Fiddle I 

 The saliva of all birds immediately mixes with water. A single 

 shower of rain would undo all the saliva-glued work on the 

 nest of Mr. Audubon's humming-bird. When our great 

 master in ornithology (whose writings, according to Swainson 

 [I. 45.], will be read when our favourite theories shall 

 have sunk into oblivion) saw his humming-bird fix the lichen 

 to the nest, pray what instrument did it make use of, in order 

 to detach the lichen from the point of its own clammy bill 

 and tongue ; to which it would be apt to adhere just as firmly 

 as to the place where it was intended that it should perma- 

 nently remain? — Charles Waterton. Walton Hall, Nov, 19. 

 1833. 



The Virginian Partridge, — " Nantes in gurgite vasto." 

 Virgil. 



" Like the turkeys, many of the weaker partridges often fall 

 into the water while thus attempting to cross, and generally 

 perish ; for, although they swim surprisingly, they have not 

 muscular power sufficient to keep up a protracted struggle." 

 (See Biography of Birds, p. 388.) 



Birds which can " swim surprisingly" will never " perish" 



