84 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



much bigger than either, for it may weigh 

 fifty pounds, more than any turkey. This 

 great bird is eight feet across the wings, and 

 though some birds, like the condor and the 

 albatross, are broader in span than this, 

 they are not so heavy, so that the paauw is 

 the biggest flying bird we know of, either 

 living or extinct. 



For a long time, of course, people always 

 thought the wren, or at any rate the golden- 

 crested wren, was the smallest bird ; but that 

 was because they only knew the birds of 

 Europe and countries near it. When America 

 came to be discovered, people were not long 

 in making the acquaintance of the humming- 

 birds, most of which are smaller than wrens ; 

 indeed, the giant of all the humming-birds 

 is not bigger than a swallow. The smallest 

 of the humming-birds is the smallest bird 

 there is ; this is the bee humming-bird of 

 the West Indies, of which you may see a 

 specimen in the South Kensington Museum, 

 under the scientific name Mellisuga minima, 

 which means " the smallest honeysucker." 

 This midget bird is very little bigger than 

 the big queen humble-bees which you see in 



