348 THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



being notoriously short, I wish the young naturalist to keep this 

 feature in mind. By so doing, when he enters a museum in any 

 part of the world, he will perceive at one glance whether the speci- 

 men before him is a humming-bird from America, or whether it 

 belongs to some other tribe of birds, no matter from what part 

 of the world; even though it be decked in metallic colours, as 

 these colours may be seen in other birds just as well as in the hum- 

 ming-birds. Let us now proceed to examine these resplendent gems 

 of the new world in their component parts and habits. The entire 

 tribe of humming-birds exhibits the same form of wings (with a 

 trifling variation in some of the primary feathers), legs, and feet. But 

 the bills in certain species vary to some extent. Some have the bill 

 short and quite straight. In others it has a downward curve, in shape 

 something like a cobbler's awl; whilst here and there we find other 

 species with the end of the bill turned upwards, as in that of our own 

 avoset. In the year 1 806, I killed a humming-bird with its bill so 

 formed, about forty miles up the river Demerara. It was sitting on 

 a twig which was hanging over the water. In one species of hum- 

 ming-bird, found in the Carracas, the bill is quite straight, and of such 

 an extraordinary length, that it appears disproportionate, and puts 

 the observer in mind of a woodcock's bill. The bird itself is robed 

 in a homely dress, somewhat deficient in metallic shades. When I 

 was in Rome, a skin of this newly- discovered species was sent to 

 Prince Canino, and offered to him for the enormous sum, if I recol- 

 lect rightly, of eighteen pounds sterling. The Prince returned the 

 skin, and I think he acted very wisely. 



The humming-bird can never be seen upon the ground, unless it 

 has had a fall. Nature has peremptorily ordered it to retire to the 

 tree for rest, or for incubation, or for sleep, after it has fulfilled its 

 duties on rapid wing through the azure vault of heaven. I may be 

 allowed to use the word rapid, because I am quite sure that nobody 

 has ever yet detected a humming-bird loitering on the wing, as our 

 crows and pigeons will often do. The flight of this bird is as that 

 of an arrow from a bow sent by some vigorous hunter. The bird 

 is nearly invisible until it arrives at the food-bearing flower, where it 

 remains on wing, apparently motionless to our eyes; such is the 

 astonishing vibration of the pinions. Should it, by any chance, come 



