THE HUMMING BIRDS. 257 



these birds, but their remarks are so superficial that it would be of 

 little use to quote them uow. Towards the end of the same century 

 Sir Hans Sloaue, Catesby, Edwards, Brown, Father Labat, Plumier, 

 Louis Feuillee, and Rochefort gave tolerably complete figures and de- 

 scriptions of some of the species, but it was not until the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century that we became better acquainted with 

 their natural history." The naturalist-traveler Marcgrave minutely 

 described several species of Humming Birds in his Natural History 

 of Brazil,* published in Amsterdam in 1648, an entire chapter (iv, 

 pp. 196-198) being devoted to these birds under the heading of " Vari- 

 ous species of (luainumbi" {Ouainumbi varkc species), Ouaimimhi or 

 Ouinamhi being the Brazilian name for a Humming Bird, as are also, 

 in the language of separate tribes, the terms Aratioa and Arataratagu- 

 acii. Humming Birds were also well described by Cesar de Rochefort 

 in his Histoire Naturelle et Morale des ties Antilles de I'Amerique 

 (published in 1658), in which also they were allotted a special chapter 

 (Article xvii, pp. 176-181). 



The earliest notice of the common Ruby-tbroated Humming Bird 

 {Trochilus colubris) of eastern North America that I have been able to 

 find is an extract from " a letter written from Boston in New England, 

 October 26, 1670," by John Winthrop, Esq., governor of Connecticut, 

 to Francis Willughby, Esq., and published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, vol. VI (1671), p. 2223. It refers to a nest and two eggs, evi- 

 dently a great curiosity at that time, as the article which follows will 

 show: 



I send you withal a little Box, with a Curiosity iu it, which perhaps will be couuterl 

 a trifle, yet 'tis rarely to be met with eveu here. It is the curiously contrived Nest 

 of a Humming Bird, t so called from the humming noise it maketh whilst it flies. 

 'Tis an exceeding litle Bird, and qnly seen iu Summer, aud mostly in Gardens, flying 

 from flower to flower, sucking Honey out of the flowers as a Bee doth ; as it flieth not 

 lighting on the flower, but hovering over it, sucking with its long Bill a sweet sub- 

 stance. There are in the same Nest two of that Birds Eggs.i Whether they use to 

 have more at once, I know not. I never saw but one of these Nests before ; and that 

 was sent over formerly, with some other Rarities, but the Vessel miscarrying you 

 received them not. 



Twenty-two years later, there appeared in the same journal (Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, vol. xvii, 1693, pp. 760-761), what seems to be 

 the first special description of the bird itself, entitled " The description 

 of the American Tomineus or Humming Bird, communicated by Nehe- 

 miah Grew, M. D. and Fellow of the Royal Society," which also is worth 

 quoting in full, the description having been written " by Mr. Hamersly, 

 of Coventry :" 



"Historia Natvralis Brazilite, Auspicio et Beneficio lUustriss. I. Mavritii Com. 

 Nassav. [etc.]. By Guilelmi Pisonis, M. D., and Georgi Marcgravi de Liebstad. 



t Of which see a notable Description in the History of the Antiles I. 1. 6. 15. art. 17, 

 where it hath the name of Colibry. 



t These Eggs were so small, that being weighed by the Publisher, the one weighed 

 but about 5 grains, the other di : Aud the whole Nest weighed no more than 24 grains. 

 H. Mis. 129, pt. 2 17 



