Genus XXX. TROCHILUS. HUMMING BIRD. 



Species. T. COLVBRIS. 



HUMMING BIRD. 



[Plate X. Figs. 3, 4.] 



T)-ochilus coluhris. Linn. Sijst. i., p. 191, No. 12. — UOheau mouche d gorge rougt 

 de la Caroline, Briss. Orn: iii., p. 716, No. 13, t. 36, fig. 6. — Le Eiibis, Buff. 

 Ois. VI., p. 13. — Huv^ming Bird, Catesb. Car. i., 65. — Bed-throated Humming 

 Bird, Edw. i., 38, male and female. — Lath. Syn. ii., 769, No. 35. 



Nature in every department of her works seems to delight in 

 variety ; and the present subject of our history is almost as singular for 

 its minuteness, beauty, want of song and manner of feeding, as the 

 Mocking-bird is for unrivalled excellence of notes, and plainness of 

 plumage. Though this interesting and beautiful genus of birds com- 

 prehends upwards of seventy species, all of which, with a very few 

 exceptions, are natives of America and its adjacent islands, it is yet 

 singular, that the species now before us should be the only one of its 

 tribe that ever visits the territory of the United States. 



According to the observations of my friend Mr. Abbot, of Savannah, 

 in Georgia, who has been engaged these thirty years in collecting and 

 drawing subjects of natural history in that part of the country, the 

 Humming Bird makes its first appearance there, from the south, about 

 the twenty-third of March ; two weeks earlier than it does in the county 

 of Burke, sixty miles higher up the country towards the interior ; and 

 at least five weeks sooner than it reaches this part of Pennsylvania. 

 As it passes on to the northward as far as the interior of Canada, where 

 -it is seen in great numbers,* the wonder is excited how so feebly con- 

 structed and delicate a little creature can make its way over such 

 extensive regions of lakes and forests, among so many enemies, all its 

 superiors in strength and magnitude. But its very minuteness., the 

 rapidity of its flight, which almost eludes the eye, and that admirable 

 instinct, reason, or whatever else it may be called, and daring courage 

 which Heaven has implanted in its bosom, are its guides and protectors. 

 In these we may also perceive the reason, why an all-wise Providence 

 has made this little hero an exception to a rule which prevails almost 



* Mr. M'Kenzie speaks of seeing a " beautiful Humming Bird" near the head of 

 the Unjigah or Peace river, in lat. 54° ; but has not particularized the species. 



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