136 



THE COMBAT. 



elephant, the ancient mammoth, would perish defenceless against a 

 million of deadly darts. Who will brave them ? The eagle or tlie 

 condor ? No; a people far more mighty — the intrepid and tlie in- 

 numerable legion of fly-catchers. 



Humming-birds, colibris, and their brothers of every hue, live 

 with impunity in these gleaming solitudes where danger lurks 

 on every side, among the most venomous insects, and upon those 

 mournful plants whose very shade kills. One of them (crested, 

 green and blue), in the Antilles, suspends his nest to the most 

 terrible and fatai of trees, to the spectre whose fatal glance seems to 

 freeze your blood for ever, to the deadly manchineal. 



Wonder of wonders ! It is this paiToquet which boldly crops the 

 fruits of the fearful tree, feeds upon them, assumes their livery, and 

 appears, from its sinister green, to draw the metallic lustre of its 

 triumphant wings. 



Life in these winged flames, the humming-bird and the colibri, 

 is so glowing, so intense, that it dares eveiy poison. They beat their 

 wings with such swiftness that the eye cannot count the pulsations ; 

 yet, meanwhile, the bird seems motionless completely inert and inactive. 



