TOICE AND SONG. 35 



nates from the food it desires, or expects to re- 

 ceive ; but man delights in the odour of flowers, in 

 the balm-laden breeze, not because they promise 

 to administer to his physical wants, but because 

 they appeal, like form, beauty, or colour, to his 

 intellectual nature, and produce sensations of 

 mental pleasure. It is neither, therefore, from 

 the beauty or the scent of the flowers, that the 

 bird derives gratification ; but they promise it 

 honey, which it naturally relishes, and insects of 

 which it is in quest. And as certain flowers 

 have their peculiar insect-tenants, so do differ- 

 ent species of Humming-birds select different 

 flowers as their favourites, and ever hover around 

 them, according to the species of insect upon 

 which they are destined to feed. 



It is not to the most beautiful birds that the 

 voice of melody is given. The mocking-bird, 

 the nightingale, and the thrush, are but plainly 

 attired ; and it would appear that if Nature be 

 lavish in one respect, she is parsimonious in 

 another. On these birds she has bestowed the 

 gift of beauty she has created them winged 

 gems she has chased their plumage with bur- 

 nished metals, or overspread it with laminae of 

 topaz and emerald she has strained, so to speak, 

 at every variety of effect she has revelled in an 

 infinitude of modifications, whether we look at 

 the hues or the development of the feathering. . 

 "We can scarcely then expect that to such exter- 

 nal perfection, the gift of song will be also 



