IV 

 HUMMING-BIRDS 



AS ILLUSTEATING THE LUXURIANCE OF TROPICAL NATURE 



Structure Colours and Ornaments Descriptive Names The Motions 

 and Habits of Humming-birds Display of Ornaments by the Male 

 Food Nests Geographical Distribution and Variation Humming- 

 birds of Juan Fernandez as illustrating Variation and Natural Selec- 

 tion The Relations and Affinities of Humming-birds How to Deter- 

 mine doubtful Affinities Resemblances of Swifts and Humming-birds 

 Differences between Sun-birds and Humming-birds Conclusion. 



THERE are now about ten thousand different kinds of birds 

 known to naturalists, and these are classed in one hundred 

 and thirty families, which vary greatly in extent, some con- 

 taining a single species only, while others comprise many 

 hundreds. The two largest families are those of the warblers, 

 with more than six hundred, and the finches with more than 

 five hundred species, spread over the whole globe ; the hawks 

 and the pigeons, also spread over the whole globe, number 

 about three hundred and thirty and three hundred and sixty 

 species respectively ; while the diminutive humming-birds, 

 confined to one hemisphere, consist of about four hundred 

 different species. They are thus, as regards the number of 

 distinct kinds collected in a limited area, the most remarkable 

 of all the families of birds. It may, however, very reasonably 

 be asked, whether the four hundred species of humming-birds 

 above alluded to are really all distinct as distinct on the 

 average as the ten thousand species of birds are from each 

 other. We reply that they certainly are perfectly distinct 

 species, which never intermingle ; and their differences do not 

 consist in colour only, but in peculiarities of form, of structure, 



