1113 



TROCHILID^E. 



TROCHILID^E. 



1114 



texture of the plumes plays the principal part in consequence of the 

 manner in which the rays of light traverse them, or are reflected by 

 the innumerable facets which a prodigious quantity of barbies or fibres 

 present. As an example of the diversity of tints which spring from 

 such scaly feathers, M. Lesson cites the emerald ' cravat ' of many 

 species, which takes all the hues of green, and then the brightest and 

 most uniformly golden tints down to intense velvet black ; or that of 

 ruby, which darta forth pencils of light, or passes from reddish-orange 

 to a crimsoned red-black. 



The females generally speaking aro without the splendour of the 

 males ; and are clad in modest, not to say sombre, plumage. The 

 game may be said of the young males till the second year, when 

 traces of the future brilliancy begin to appear here and there ; but on 

 the third year all remains of the sober livery of youth have vanished, 

 and the bird shines out in the full radiance of his nuptial dress. 



The small feet are generally of a dark colour : several species, espe- 

 cially those which live high up in the mountainous regions, have the 

 tarsi warmly and largely protected with white plumelets, so that the 

 birds look as if they had downy muffs on their legs. 



The native names of the Hutnming-Birds were, as might be expected, 

 first made known by the Spaniards and others who first invaded the 

 New World. With the ancient Mexicans these bright creatures appear 

 to have been great favourites. The radiant mantles worn by the natives 

 in Moutezuma's time glittered with the spoils of these diminutive birds, 

 which were also employed in the art of design, and in the composition 

 of those embroidered pictures which Cortes has so highly praised. 

 Humboldt notices the religious belief of the Mexicans that Toyamiqui, 

 the spouse of the God of War, conducted the souls of those warriors 

 who had died in defence of the gods into the mansion of the sun, and 

 transformed them into humming-birds ; and it must be owned that 

 they form an emblem of the soul hardly less spiritual than the butter- 

 fly of the Greeks. Hernandez treats of the Mexican species under the 

 names of Hoitzitziltototl, or Arit I'aria ; and in the ' Nova Plantarum, 

 Animalium, et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia a Francisco Her- 

 nandez Medico in Indiia prxstantissimo priinum compilata, dein h 

 Nardo Antonio Reecho in Volumen digesta,' &c. (Romaj, 1651, folio), 

 we find seven species figured under the general title of Hoitzitzil, and 

 the specific designations of Xiu Hoitzitzilin, Etsal Hoitzitziliu, Ystac 

 Hoitzitzilin, Tenoc Hoitzitzilin, Quetsal Hoitzitzilin, Tozcacoz Hoitzit- 

 ziliu, and Xoe Hoitzitziliu. Ximenes writes the word Huitzitzil. 

 Gomara gives Vicicilin as the name. John de Laet writes Quenti as 

 the Peruvian and Tomineios as the Spanish appellation. Ourissia is 

 the name recorded by Nieremberg ; and Guianumbi, according to 

 Marcgrave and others, is the Brazilian designation. These and other 

 Indian terms are said to signify ' rays of the sun,' ' tresses of the day- 

 star,' ' murmuring birds,' and the like. The Spanish Tominos, or 

 Tomineios, seems to refer to their diminutive size and small weight ;* 

 and Picaflores, another term employed by the Spanish or Portuguese 

 Creoles, to their mode of taking their food. Captain Lyon, R.N., in 

 his ' Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico ' 

 (1828), states that in the neighbourhood of Xalapa the Humming- 

 Bird is distinguished by the names of Chupa-Rosa and Chupa-Myrta, 

 Rose-Sucker and Myrtle-Sucker. 



It is not to bo wondered at that f.ible should have its share in 

 accounting for the origin and describing the habits of these diminu- 

 tive aerial beings. Thus, while the more sober believed that they 

 were hatched from eggs like other birds, others fancied that they were 

 transformed from flies, some going so far as to declare that they had 

 been seen in the half-fly half-bird state. Then again they were sup- 

 posed to live no longer than the flowers which afforded them food, 

 and when those flowers faded they were believed to fix themselves by 

 the bill to some pine or other tree, and there remain during the dreary 

 months till the descending rains brought back the spring, when they 

 revived again, to undergo the same alternation of life and death. 

 Gomara states that they expired in the month of October, having 

 previously suspended them'selves by their feet from a branch in some 

 warm place, and were renascent in April. 



Humming-Birds were in the museum of the Tralescants under that 

 name, this name having been given them on account of the noise they 

 make with their wings whilst flying. In the ' Mussoum Tradescauti- 

 anum,' by John Tradescant (12mo., London, 1656), we find in the 

 catalogue of ' Whole Birds,' " divers Humming-Birds, three sorts 

 whereof are from Virginia." 



Mr. Darwin states th:it two species are common in Chili, and that 

 he has seen a third within the Cordilleras at an elevation of about 

 10,000 feet. He adds tliat in the wooded island of Cliiloe, which has 

 an extremely humid climate, Mdliuya Kingii, skipping from side to 

 ide amidst the dripping foliage, is perhaps more abundant than any 

 other kind. It there very commonly frequents open marshy ground, 

 where a kind of bromelia grows : hovering near the edge of the thick 

 beds, it every now and then dashed in close to the ground ; but Mr. 

 Darwin could not see whether it ever actually alighted. At the time 

 of year referred in by him there were very few flowers, and none 

 whatever near the beds of bromelia. Hence he was quite sure they 

 did not live on honey; and on opening the stomach nnd upper intes- 

 tine, by the aid of a lens he could plainly distinguish, in a yellow 



' Tomln, the third prt of a drachm, Spanish troy weight. 



fluid, morsels of the wings of Diplera, probably Tipvlidce. It is 

 evident, he observes, that these birds search for minute insects in 

 their winter-quarters under the thick foliage. He opened the stomachs 

 of several specimens, which were shot in different parts of the con- 

 tinent ; and in all remains of insects wore so numerous as often to 

 present a black comminuted mass, as in the stomach of a creeper. 

 Mr. Darwin goes on to state that in Central Chili these birds aro 

 migratory, making their appearance there in autumn, and that iu the 

 latter end of the mouth corresponding to our October they were very 

 common. They began to disappear in the spring, and on the 12th of 

 what would correspond to our March he saw, iu the course of a long 

 walk, only one individual. As this species migrates to the southward, 

 it is replaced by the arrival of the larger kind presently to be noticed. 

 Mr. Darwin does not believe that the small kind breeds in Chili, for 

 during the summer their nests were common to the south of that 

 country. 



Numbers of the large species (Trocltilus gigas) arrived in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Valparaiso, during the year in question, a little before 

 the vernal equinox. Mr. Darwin describes it as coming from the 

 parched deserts of the north, probably for the purpose of breeding 

 in Chili, and says that when on the wing its appearance is singular. 

 He observes that, like others of the genus, it moves from place to 

 place with a rapidity which may be compared to that of M/rjiAw 

 among Viptera, and Sphinx among moths ; but, whilst hovering over 

 a flower, it flaps its wings with a very slow and powerful movement, 

 totally different from that vibratory one common to most of the 

 species which produces the humming noise. He declares that he 

 never saw any other bird where tiie force of its wings appeared (as 

 in a butterfly) so powerful iu proportion to the weight of its body. 

 He tells us that when hovering by a flower, its tail is constantly ex- 

 panded and shut like a fan, the body being kept in a nearly vertical 

 position. This action, he says, appears to steady and support the 

 bird between the slow movements of its wings. He further states 

 that, although flying from flower to flower in search of food, its 

 stomach generally contained abundant remains of insects, which he 

 suspects are much more the objects of its search than honey ; and 

 that its note, like that of nearly the whole family, is extremely shrill. 



The nests of these birds are as wonderful as any that are made. 

 They vary greatly in form and structure ; but iu all the soft and 

 delicate materials are so put together as to furnish as much warmth 



Xcst of Hiimming-BiriL (Lesson.) 



Net of Humming.Bird, with eggs. (Lesson.) 



