May 



ing a wider reach than the questioner ever 

 imagined. 



The family of humming-birds is a large one 

 of fully four hundred species, found all over 

 America from Patagonia to Alaska. The centre 

 of abundance is in tropical America, while in 

 entire North America there are said to be only 

 fifteen species as yet discovered ; and of these 

 only one, the ruby-throated, that occurs in the 

 Eastern States. Of this species it is the male 

 that has the fiery breast, and after watching 

 this gleaming quintessence of life and brilliancy 

 one would fain turn his thoughts away and let 

 the memory fade, before he looks for other 

 birds. 



Among all the glorious company of the war- 

 blers, it is really a relief from the satiety of col- 

 or occasionally to meet one that, to change the 

 figure, is not so highly spiced ; and for a rest- 

 ful effect in pure white, blue, and black, nothing 

 could be finer than the " black-throated blue," 

 as chaste and elegant as one could imagine, and 

 with ample compensation for its colder tones in 

 its grace of pose and motion. It seems perfect- 

 ly silent, and I have never heard its note ; but 



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