ii8 LETTERS TO MARCO xvm 



it was but an idle rumour. I believe so 

 large a river could not be managed by the 

 dogs. 



My American cousins have sent me lately 

 a box containing two curiosities, one of which 

 is the body of a bee-bird, the smallest bird 

 known : it is a humming-bird, but not often 

 seen in the stuffed specimens in cases, as its 

 colours are but humble and quiet. 



The Bee-bird. 



I have made a little drawing of it for you 

 the exact size of nature. I remember my 

 father once mistaking a hawk - moth for a 

 humming-bird in our garden ; he was greatly 

 excited about it and quite sure it must have 

 been a bird which had somehow crossed the 

 Atlantic ; and the sight of this minute bee-bird 

 explains to me now how he came to be 

 mistaken, as it would certainly with wings 



