92 THE FIRST FLUTTERINGS OF THE WING. 



spell a letter. How often have different classes of persons, surprised 

 and tormented by such fantastic forms, inquired of us their meaning! 

 A word has set them in the right path, a simple indication charmed them ; 

 they have gone away contented, and promising themselves to return. 

 On the other hand, they who traversed this ocean of unknown objects 

 without comprehending them, have departed fatigued and melancholy. 



Let us express our wish that an administration so enlightened, so 

 high in the ranks of science, may return to the original constitu- 

 tion of the museum, which appointed gardiens demonstrateurs 

 attendants who were also cicerones and will only admit as guardians 

 of this treasure men who can understand it, and, on occasion, become 

 its interpreters. 



Another wish we dare to form is, that by the side of our renowned 

 naturalists they will place those courageous navigators, those persever- 

 ing travellers who, by their labours, their fruits, by a hundred times 

 hazarding their lives, have procured for us these costly spoils. What- 

 ever their intrinsic value, it is, perhaps, increased by the heroism and 

 grandeur of heart of these adventurers. This charming colibris,* 

 madam, a winged sapphire in which you could see only a useless ob- 

 ject of personal decoration, do you know that an Azara-f- or a Lesson^: 

 has brought it from murderous forests where one breathes nothing but 

 death? This magnificent tiger, whose skin you admire, are you 

 aware that before it could be planted here, there was a necessity that 

 it should be sought after in the jungles, encountered face to face, fired 

 at, struck in the forehead by the intrepid Levaillant? These illus- 



* Family Trochilidx. 



t Felix de Azara was an eminent Spanish traveller, who died at Arragon in 1811. He 

 acted as one of the commissioners appointed to trace the boundary-line between the Spanish 

 and Portuguese possessions in the New World. His researches in Paraguay made many 

 valuable contributions to natural history. Translator. 



% Lesson was a French traveller of repute ; but his works are little known beyond the 

 limits of his own country. Translator. 



g Fran9ois Levaillant was born at Paramaribo in Dutch Guiana, in 1753. Passionately 

 fond of natural history, and scarcely less fond of travel, he gratified both passions in 1780 

 by undertaking a series of explorations in Southern Africa. His last journey extended a 

 little beyond the tropic of Capricorn. He returned to Europe in 1784, published several 

 valuable works of travel and zoology, and died in 1824. Translator. 



