CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. 127 



! To the works of zoologists who have recently 

 added to our knowledge we have made free 

 reference, with feelings of gratitude. In justice 

 to these writers, we have generally transcribed 

 their own words (for, unless abbreviation be ne- 

 cessary, this we believe to be a bounden duty), 

 and when we have merely given the substance 

 of their observations and experimental proceed- 

 ings, we have acknowledged the source whence 

 our details were derived. 



It is now time that we proceed to give the 

 characteristics of such forms and species as are 

 most worthy of the attention of the general 

 reader; and, in so doing, we shall omit those 

 already described by Sir W. Jardine, in his 

 Natural History of Humming-birds, only mak- 

 ing references to them, and giving the numbers 

 of the page and figure. It is but proper to ob- 

 serve, that our descriptions are all taken from 

 specimens in the cabinet of Mr. Grould, without 

 access to which we could scarcely have ventured 

 upon the present undertaking ; inasmuch as, to 

 ransack the museums of England and the Con- 

 tinent is a work of no trifling expenditure of 

 time and pecuniary resources. But the noble 

 cabinet alluded to has rendered this, thanks to 

 its owner, needless. 



