UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 167 



idea of their real brilliancy ; for the sides of the 

 fibres of each feather being of a different colour 

 from the surface, the least motion of the bird 

 continually changes the hue. For example, the 

 topaz-throated humming-bird of Nootka Sound 

 is ever varying from a vivid fire colour to the 

 bright green of the emerald. 



They are very cunning little things; the house 

 in which Mr. B. lived was of one story, inclosing 

 a garden round which it was built. The spiders 

 had spread their numerous webs from the tiles 

 of the projecting roof, to the trees in the garden, 

 so closely, that they resembled a net. The hum- 

 ming-birds endeavoured to seize on the entangled 

 flies ; but, afraid of entangling their own wings, 

 and perhaps a little alarmed by those great spiders, 

 they would fly rapidly round and round, as if to 

 reconnoitre the best avenue ; then darting in, 

 they picked out the smallest fly, and escaped 

 without touching a single thread. 



I was surprised to find that some of these birds 

 were found as far north as Nootka Sound ; and 

 I asked my aunt if she thought there was any 

 mistake in the name of the place. She said, that 

 though the winters are very severe in that part of 

 America, the summer is extremely hot ; and she 

 added that an intimate friend in Upper Canada, 

 with whom she corresponds, mentions the hum- 

 ming-birds as being constant visiters in summer 

 I had not before heard that she had a corre- 



