May 
ing a wider reach than the questioner ever 
imagined. 
The family of humming-birds is a large one 
of fully four hundred species, found all over 
America from Patagonia to Alaska. The centre 
of abundance is in tropical America, while in 
entire North America there are said to be only 
fifteen species as yet discovered ; and of these 
only one, the ruby-throated, that occurs in the 
Eastern States. Of this species it is the male 
that has the fiery breast, and after watching 
this gleaming quintessence of life and brilliancy 
one would fain turn his thoughts away and let 
the memory fade, before he looks for other 
birds. 
9 
Among all the glorious company of the war- 
blers, it is really a relief from the satiety of col- 
or occasionally to meet one that, to change the 
figure, is not so highly spiced; and for a rest- 
ful effect in pure white, blue, and black, nothing 
could be finer than the ‘‘ black-throated blue,’’ 
as chaste and elegant as one could imagine, and 
with ample compensation for its colder tones in 
its grace of pose and motion. It seems perfect- 
ly silent, and I have never heard its note ; but 
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