468 CLASS XVI. 



bone extend over the cranium, as in tlie woodpeckers. The 

 skeleton is distinguished by a very short humerus ; the bones of 

 the fore arm also are short, and are exceeded in length by those 

 of the hand. The keel of the sternum is large and high ; the 

 furcula is thin. The neck is very long, although the vertebrse are 

 only thirteen in number. With the tongue, bifid at the extremity, 

 they catch insects at the bottom of flowers. 



The peculiar smallness of most of the humming-birds deserves remark ; 

 Sloane speaks of a little bird which during life weighed only 20 grains, 

 Trochilus minimus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 193, ed. 12; when, however, 

 Beireis makes mention of a specimen which weighed only 6 grains {!iyst. 

 Nat. ed. 13, cura Gmelin, i. p. 500), it may be surmised with Rddolphi, 

 that it was imperfect and dried, or half destroyed by worms, Bemerkungen 

 auf einer Reise, 1804, 8vo. i. s. 65. 



Compare on this family the three splendid works of Lesson, entitled, 

 Histoire naturelle des Oiseaux-mouches, Paris, 1828 — 1830; Hist. nat. des 

 Colibris, Paris, 1830, 183 1; Les TrochiUdees ou les CoUhris et les Oiseaux- 

 mouches, Paris, 1832, 1833, and GouLD'a valuable Monograjih of the 

 Trochilklce or Humming- Birds. London, 1850, and foil, (up to Oct. 1852, 

 4 parts, fol. The plates present an imitation of the original play of 

 colours of the plumage hitherto unknown.) 



Trochilus L. (Characters of the family. Wings long, narrow, 

 with first quill longest of all, the posterior suddenly decreasing. 

 Tail with ten feathers.) 



T|0o';^(\o? is the name of a bird mentioned by Herodotus, and 

 other ancient wi-iters ; whatever that bird may have been (comp. 

 above, p. 413), so much is certain, that it was not the Trochilus 

 of Zoologists, and that this name was given quite incorrectly to this 

 genus of small American birds. They are in all respects formed for 

 flying, and are almost always in motion, like the swallows, which 

 have much analogy with the humming-birds. They lay two eggs in 

 a nest which is composed principally of the woolly tissue of plants. 



LiNN^us counted in 1766 two and twenty species of his genus 

 Trochilus; between two and three hundred are now known. 

 Within the last few years, therefore, difiereut genera have been 

 proposed to distinguish the species, especially by Swainson and 

 Gould. They are founded chiefly upon the form and relative 

 length of the bill and of the tail. 



+ With hill curved. 

 Fhaethornis Swains. Bill elongate, curved, compressed at the 

 sides, acute. Tail long, cuneate, with two middle feathers pro- 

 duced. Tarsi feathered. 



