HUMMING-BIRD. 



fallowing it, so that all the rest of the quills act, in 

 some sort, as coverts to the first ones. The webs of 

 the quills are very closely set, and so completely 

 hooked together, that while the bends of the shafts 

 make openings, through which the air is admitted 

 when the wing is rising, the descending wing strikes 

 the air as if it were a solid. It is this peculiarity of 

 the wings which enables the birds to work them with 

 so much rapidity, when hovering, and which makes 

 them proceed in those arches to which we formerly 

 alluded, when they are upon long flight. The stroke 

 which is given at the commencement of each arch is 

 too vigorous for merely carrying the bird onward in 

 level flight, and thus there is an ascending motion at 

 the first, something like that of a bullet fired at a 

 small elevation, and no new effort is required until 

 the end of the arch is arrived at, when a similar stroke 

 carries the bird along another. 



The tail, in birds of this genus, is generally power- 

 ful ; and it has all the varieties of termination which 

 can well be imagined. It is pointed, rounded, squared, 

 forked, very broad, and much produced in some of 

 the species, and consists of very few feathers, not 

 more than six, in some of the others. In every spe- 

 cies, however, the fea'hers are of the same firm 

 character as those of the wings, and the tail itself is 

 capable of a good deal of motion. It will be borne 

 in mind that the tail of a bird, though often described 

 as a rudder by which the bird is enabled to wheel 

 and turn in the air, answers a very different our- 

 pose, namely, that of ascent and descent ; and we 

 shall afterwards see that humming-birds require to 

 use a great deal of this kind of motion. 



The bill is, in all the genera, long and slender; but 

 it has always a good deal of the insectivorous charac- 

 ter, though not of the character of those bills which 

 are used for catching prey while the bird flies open- 

 mouthed, as is done by the swallow tribe, and the 

 goat-suckers, or nocturnal swallows. In some of the 

 species the portion of the bill toward the point is 

 armed in both mandibles with small teeth sloping 

 backwards ; but these do not extend to the extremity 

 of the bill, which is always very sharp pointed, and 

 sometimes curved downwards at the tip of the upper 

 mandible, and slightly upwards at that of the lower 

 one. In almost all the species the upper mandible is 

 sufficiently broad for overlapping, and partially sheath- 

 ing the under one. The general form of the bill, 

 though always slender, and nearly of an equal thick- 

 ness throughout, with the exception of the tip, which 

 is usually very sharp and keen, varies considerably. 

 Systematic naturalists have sometimes divided the 

 birds into two sections, those which have the bill 

 straight, and those which have it crooked ; but it 

 does not appear that very much useful information 

 can be derived from this division ; because we are 

 not acquainted with any peculiarity in the habits of 

 the bird which depends on the straightness or curva- 

 ture of the bill. Besides, some of them have the 

 bill curved downwards, as most crooked bills are ; 

 others have it curved upwards at the point ; and 

 others again have it curved a little downwards in 

 the basal part, and then upwards again at the tip. 

 Nor is even this all ; for the teeth in the mandibles 

 are found in some of the straight-billed species, and 

 al<o in some of those with crooked bills ; which last 

 circumstance would lead us to believe that both forms 

 are made use of for catching exactly the same kind 

 of food, though probably not for getting at it in the 



same kind of places. It really does seem, therefore, 

 that the most rational way of dealing with this differ- 

 ent shape of the bill, at least until we shall be better 

 acquainted with the habits of the birds, is to regard 

 it simply as one of the specific characters. It is much 

 the same with those other foundations upon which 

 the genus has been broken down into more minute 

 divisions ; a mode of proceeding which certainly 

 renders the history of the genus a little more intri- 

 cate, and therefore more perplexing to learners and 

 common readers ; but other than this left-handed sort 

 of merit, it appears to possess none. A difference in 

 the form of an organ is a useful distinction, in all cases 

 where we can take the difference of function and pur- 

 pose in the organ along with us ; and there may be 

 cases in which a difference of structure may be an ex- 

 cellent guide to the difference of purpose ; but this 

 does not hold in such cases as the one under conside- 

 ration. If we leave out- the distinction of being 

 toothed or not toothed in the edges, the bills of all 

 humming-birds resemble each other in their texture, 

 and in the nature of their cutting edges ; and there- 

 fore we may naturally enough conclude that the lead- 

 ing work to be done is nearly the same in the case of 

 them all ; and that the differences in shape relate to 

 certain variations in the places whence the birds obtain 

 their food ; and these can be found only by observa- 

 tion, which has not yet been made ; and therefore 

 there is no room for speculation upon the subject. 



The tongue of the humming-birds is rather a sin- 

 gular instrument ; and it resembles the tongues of 

 woodpeckers more than those of any other birds. 

 It is protrusile and retractile, or can be darted beyond 

 the extremities of the mandibles and drawn back 

 again. This is effected by a muscular apparatus not 

 very different from that which gives the same kind of 

 action to the tongue of the woodpeckers. It should 

 seem also that, in some cases at least, the tongue is 

 furnished with barbs very similar to those in the 

 woodpeckers. This tongue is described as consist- 

 ing, in many of the species at least, of two muscular 

 tubes, .which are united together for the greater part 

 of their length, but open towards the point of the 

 tongue, and form something resembling a pair of small 

 forceps. The muscular fibres of those hard tubes 

 are placed in a sort of spiral manner, so that when 

 they act, they lessen the diameter of the tube, but 

 increase its length, and this with a degree of rapidity 

 proportional to their number. So that this tongue 

 has not exactly the same texture as the tongue of the 

 woodpecker, nor does it appear that they contain 

 bone and cartilage as that tongue does. It is pro- 

 bable, also (for the point has not been investigated 

 with much care), that the barbels upon the tongue 

 are not composed of so hard a matter. 



In no case, however, does it appear that their 

 tongue is, or indeed can be, an instrument of suction ; 

 and indeed we know of no animal in which the tongue 

 alone can perform this office ; and of no sucker in 

 any animal which is composed of a single piece. 

 Every sucker must act something upon the same 

 principle as a common sucking pump, and, like that, 

 it must have one part in which the vacuum is 

 formed, and another by which it is to be formed. 

 Thus the humming-bird could not suck with the 

 tongue unless the mandibles answered the first of 

 these purposes ; and they are not adapted for any 

 such use, but are simply a prehensile instrument, 

 by means of which the food is seized in some in- 



