14 CLASSIFICATION. 



Mr. Swainson, after these and other remarks, 

 proceeds as follows : " The Cinnyridce have full- 

 sized legs; and their wings are moderate and 

 rounded : the Humming-birds, on the contrary, 

 have the feet excessively short and small, while 

 the wings, for the size of the body, are 'fre- 

 quently longer than those of the swallows. As 

 the Sun-birds are restricted tQ the tropical lati- 

 tudes of Africa and India, so are the Humming- 

 birds confined to America: both groups are rich in 

 species ; and of this, in particular, the variety of 

 secondary forms is almost innumerable. We 

 have endeavoured to determine the five prin- 

 cipal genera (in accordance with the fanciful 

 quinary system, now obsolete) ; but the sub- 

 genera can only be correctly ascertained by a 

 much more rigid analysis than we have yet been 

 able to make (an analysis which will require 

 some years before it is properly worked out). 

 In the genus TROCHILUS, as now restricted, we 

 have all those whose bills are perfectly straight, 

 the tail being either even or slightly devaricated. 

 CYNANTHUS comprehends such species as have 

 the bill slightly bent, with a tail very long and 

 deeply forked. If we look to the Sun-birda 

 on the one hand, and the Hoopoes on the 

 other, we immediately perceive that the straight- 

 ness of bill is a typical perfection of the Hum- 

 ming-birds (this we query). In the genus 

 LAMPORNIS (example, MANGO HUMMING-BIRD 

 Naturalist's Libr. vol. ii. p. 100), the bill is ob- 



