444 HUMMING-BIRD 



small insects that have been attracted to feed upon the honey. ^ 

 These, on the tongue being withdrawn into the bill, are caught by 

 the mandibles (furnished in the males of many species with fine, 

 horny, saw-like teeth 2), and swallowed in the usual way. The 

 stomach is small, moderately muscular, and with the inner coat 

 slightly hardened. There seem to be no cseca. The trachea is 

 remarkably short, the bronchi beginning high up on the throat, and 

 song-muscles are wholly wanting, as in all other Gypselomor'phse?' 



Humming-birds, as is well known, comprehend the smallest 

 members of the Class Aves. The largest among them measures no 

 more than 8 inches and a half,^ and the least 2 inches and three- 

 eighths in length, for it is now admitted generally that Sloane 

 must have been in error wdien he described {Voyage, ii. p. 308) the 

 "Least Humming-bird of Jamaica" as "about 1;^ inch long from 

 the end of the bill to that of the tail " — unless, indeed, he meant 

 the proximal end of each, an interpretation, however, that will not 

 save Edwards and Latham from the charge of careless misstate- 

 ment, when they declare that they had received such a bird from 

 that island. Next to their generally small size, the best known 

 characteristic of the Trochilidse is the wonderful brilliancy of the 

 plumage of nearly all their forms, in which respect they are sur- 

 passed by no other birds, and are only equalled by a few, as, for 

 instance, by the Nedariniidse (Sun-bird) of the tropical parts of 

 the Old World, in popular belief so often confounded with them, 

 and even by some mistaken naturalists thought to be their allies. 



The number of species of Humming-birds now known to exist 

 considerably exceeds 400 ; and, though none depart very widely 

 from what a morphologist would deem the typical structure of the 

 Family, the amount of modification, within certain limits, presented 

 by the various forms is surprising and even bewildering to the un- 

 initiated. But the features that are ordinarily chosen by systematic 

 ornithologists in drawing up . their schemes of classification are 



■^ It is probable that in various members of the TrochiHdm the structure of 

 the tongue, and other parts correlated therewith, will be found subject* to several 

 and perhaps considerable modifications, as is the case in various members of the 

 PiciclBB. At present there are scarcely more than half a dozen species of Humming- 

 birds of which it can be said that any part of their anatomy is known. 



- These are very plain in Ehamphodon neevitts and Androdon mquatorialis. 



^ Gosse {B. Jamaica, p. 130) says that Mellisuga minima, the smallest species 

 of the Familj'-, has "a real song" — but the like is not recorded of any other. 



* There are several species in which the tail is very much elongated, such 

 as the well-known Aithurus polytmus of Jamaica, and the remarkable Loddigesia 

 mirahilis of Chachapoyas in Peru, which last was for many years only known 

 from a unique specimen (Ibis, ISSO, p. 152 ; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, pp. 827-83i, 

 fig.) ; but " trochilidists " in giving their measurements do not take these extra- 

 ordinary developments into account. 



