NOOTKA HUMMING-BIRD. 605 



This and the other species of Regulus were not observed 

 by any of the Arctic Expeditions in the fur countries they 

 traversed. At least they are wholly silent on the subject. 



NORTHERN HUMMING BIRD. 



{Trochilus colubris, Linn. Rich, and Swains. North. Zool. ii. p. 



323.) 



This most diminutive but swift messenger of summer, 

 ajmost defying the obstruction of space, from its mild resorts 

 within the tropics, following as it were the path of the sun, 

 it extends its transient northern range even into the desert 

 fur-countries, and following the great valley of the Missis- 

 sippi, after entering the boundaries of the Union, it is seen 

 to range with undiminished ardor to the 57th parallel, and 

 perhaps even farther towards the Arctic Zone. It frequents 

 the warm plains of the Saskatchewan, and Mr. Drummond, 

 one of the most enterprising of naturalists, found its dimin- 

 utive nest near the sources of Elk River in the distant 

 interior. 



The Humming-Bird, is deservedly the wonder of all na- 

 tions, savage, as well as civilized. The Mexicans and other 

 nations of America, considering it as an emanation from 

 their deity, called it the Sun-beam, and also the Regenerated, 

 as they believed it to die or remain dormant in the rainy 

 season or winter, and became reanimated with the return of 

 the flowers on which it fed. 



NOOTKA HUMMING-BIRD. 



{TrochiltLS rufus, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 497. T. (Selasphorus) mfus, 

 Swains. North. Zool. ii. p. 324. T. collaris, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 

 318. Ruff-necked Humming-Bird. Lath. Syn. ii. p. 785. pi. 35' 



51* 



