XXVI 
THE HUMMING FAMILY 
(Trochilide)* 
Tats is an American family, and no country in 
the world can show a more beautiful one. There 
are more than four hundred species, and some of 
them hardly bigger than a bee. All of these 
birds have brilliant colors that are called metal- 
lic. That is, they glitter like metal, and they 
show different colors when they are turned dif- 
ferent ways. 
All hummingbirds fly very swiftly. You know 
how they go, — not straight like most birds, but 
darting one way and another so quickly they can 
hardly be seen. As they fly, their wings move 
so fast they look almost like little clouds, and we 
hear the low noise we call humming. 
Hummingbirds eat nothing but tiny insects, 
and the honey of flowers, which they suck up 
through their long bill. They take their food 
without alighting, for they can hold themselves 
1 See Appendix, 19. 
