286 THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



motionless, as if it had been stuffed and placed there for 

 ornament. In an instant it darted off, with so rapid a 

 motion, that a green bright line from the post to a splash 

 of water where it had plunged, alone marked its course. 

 In another instant it rose, and with as rapid a flight 



resumed its position 

 on the p.ost, having 

 swallowed the little 

 fish, whose bright 

 scales we could just 

 see glistening in the 

 sun, as the bird 

 emerged from the 

 water. There it 

 rested motionless as 

 before, till another 



plunge denoted the capture of another fish ; and so on, 

 till, after having captured four or five, it darted away, 

 and was seen no more. Its nest is in great part com- 

 posed of fish-bones, which it throws up in pellets, similar 

 to those cast up by Owls, of which we have already 

 spoken. 



The Humming-birds are the last of this tribe we shall 

 notice, lamenting that none but those who cross the 

 seas, and can visit them in their native haunts, will ever 

 be fortunate enough to behold the glorious robes with 

 which nature can invest even the smallest of her works. 

 Truly may it be said of these lovely birds, as of the lilies 

 of the field, " that Solomon in all his glory was not 

 arrayed like one of these." 



"Never was I more excited to wonder than by one of 

 these little creatures," says a traveller*, " so much more 

 resembling a splendid shining insect, than a bird. It 

 was on a fine day at the commencement of an American 

 summer, on the banks of Lake Huron, that I first beheld 

 them. Beautiful birds were drinking, and splashing 

 themselves in the water ; and gaudy butterflies, of a very 



* CAPTAIN HEAD'S Forest Scenes. 



