260 THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



another instant it rose, and with as rapid a flight resumed its 

 position on the post, 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 composed 

 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." 



11 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 commence- 

 ment 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 large size, 

 were fanning the air with their yellow and black wings. At this 

 moment a little blazing meteor shot, like a glowing coal of fire, 

 across the glen ; and I saw for the first time, with admiration and 

 astonishment, what in a moment I recognised, that resplendent 

 living gem, the Humming-bird ! buzzing like a humble-bee, which it 

 exactly resembled in its flight and sound: like it, it sprang through 

 the air by a series of simultaneous impulses, tracing angle after 

 angle with the velocity of lightning ; till, poised above its favourite 

 flower, all motion seemed lost in its very intensity, and the humming 

 sound alone certified to the ear the rapid vibration of its wing, by 

 which it supported its little airy form." 



They vary from the size of a humble-bee to that of a Willow- 

 Wren, the nests of the smaller sort appearing more like mossy 

 knots on a branch than the manufacture of a bird, not ex- 

 ceeding an inch in diameter, and formed of the most delicate 

 materials. They will build fearlessly within sight of a win- 

 dow, where they may be leisurely observed. They frequently 

 * CArrAiN Head's Forest Scenes. 



