150 LEAST HUMMING-BIRD. 



It is about the size of a wren. Its head, and the 

 upper parts of the neck, are brown, streaked with black. 

 The rump is tawny ; the under parts of the body are 

 white; the quill-feathers are brown, ten of them tipped 

 with white. The remainder of the plumage is a mixed 

 grey. The tail is long. The bill is hooked and 

 slender. 







16. HUMMING-BIRD TRIBE. 



The Humming-birds are found chiefly in the tropical 

 districts of America, and in the West India Islands. They 

 subsist on the nectar of flowers, and on small insects. It 

 is from the humming noise which they make with their 

 wings, during flight, that their name is derived. 



Least Humming-Bird. This is the smallest of all the 

 known species of birds, measuring scarcely more than an 

 inch in its whole length, and not exceeding the twentieth 

 part of an ounce in weight. It feeds on the nectarous 

 juices of flowers. These it enters with surprising agility, 

 and does not leave until it has rifled them of all their 

 sweets. Its nest is formed externally of moss, and lined 

 with the finest particles of cotton. The eggs are so dimi- 

 nutive, as scarcely to be larger than the grains of corian- 

 der, and are of a dirty white colour. 



These birds are natives of South America, and some of 

 the West India Islands. The head and upper parts of 

 the body are of a golden green colour, changeable accord- 

 ing to the lights in which they are viewed. The wings 

 are of a violet- brown; and the tail-feathers are bluish 

 black, the lateral ones white on the outer edge. The un- 

 der parts of the body are whitish. The bill is extremely 

 small and slender, and, as well as the legs, is blackish. 



