HUMMING-BIRD 441 
ordinarily in naturalists’ hands, the name seems to be first found in 
the Museum Tradescantianum, published in 1656, but it therein 
occurs (p. 3) so as to suggest its having already been accepted and 
commonly understood ;! and its earliest use, as yet discovered, is 
said to be by Thomas Morton in the New English Canaan, printed 
in 1632—a rare work reproduced by Peter Force in his Historical 
Tracts (vol. ii. Washington: 1838). Thevet, in his Singularitez de 
la France antarctique (Paris: 1558, fol. 947), has been more than 
once cited as the earliest author to mention Humming-birds, which 
he did under the name of Gofiabuch or Gonambuch ; but it is quite 
certain that Oviedo, whose Hystoria general de las Indias was pub- 
lished at Toledo in 1525, preceded him by more than thirty years, 
with an account of the “paxaro mosquito” of Hispaniola, of which 
island “the first chronicler of the Indies” was governor.? This 
name, though now apparently disused in Spanish, must have been 
current about that time, for we find Gesner in 1555 (De avium 
natura, lil. p. 629) translating it literally into Latin as Passer 
muscatus, owing, as he says, his knowledge of the bird to Cardan, 
who (De Subtil. lib. x.) had called it by the same name, and 
tells us (Comment. in Ptolem. de astr. judiciis, Basilie: 1554, p. 
472) that, on his return to Milan from professionally attending 
Archbishop Hamilton at Edinburgh, he visited Gesner at Zurich, 
1 Sir Thomas Browne in 1646 wrote (Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Bk. 6, chap. 
viii.): “‘So have all Ages conceaved, and most are still ready to sweare, the 
Wren is the least of birds, yet the discoveries of America, and even of our own 
Plantations shewed us one farre lesse, that is, the Hum-bird, not much exceeding 
a Beetle.” The name Hum-bird was in use fifty years later. Mr. Benjamin 
Buttivant, writing from Boston in New England to Pettiver on 15 January 
1697/8, says (Phil. Trans. xx. p. 168): ‘‘ The Huwm-bird I have shot with 
sand, and had one some Weeks in my keeping. I put a Straw for a Perch 
into a Venice Glass Tumbler, ty’d over the Mouth with a Paper in which 
I cut holes for the Bird’s Bill (about as long and as small as a Taylor's 
Needle), and laying the Glass on one side, set a Drachm of Honey by it, which 
it soon scented, and with its long Tongue put forth beyond its Bill, fed 
daily ; it muted the Honey pure, and was a Prospect to many Comers ; it flew 
away at last.” 
2 Not having seen a copy of this first edition, I take the reference from the 
reprint of M. Gaffarel (Paris: 1878, p. 249). 
3 In the edition of Oviedo’s work, published at Salamanca in 1547, the 
earliest I have seen, the account (lib. xiv. cap. 4) runs thus :—‘‘ Ay assi mismo 
enesta ysla vnos paxaricos tan negros como vn terciopelo negro muy bueno & son 
tan pequefios que ningunos he yo visto en Indias menores/ excepto el que aca se 
llama paxaro mosquito. El qual es tan pequefio que el bulto del es menor harto 
0 assaz que le cabeca del dedo pulgar de la mano. Este no le he visto enesta Ysla 
pero dizen me que aqui los ay: & por esso dexo de hablar enel pa lo dezir déde 
los he visto que es en la tierra firme quado della se trate.” A modern Spanish 
version of this passage will be found in the beautiful edition of Oviedo’s works 
published by the Academy of Madrid in 1851 (i. p. 444). 
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