THE HUMMING-BIRD. 125 



I have never read any thing in the annals of or- 

 nithology that bears any similarity to this aquilavul- 

 turian exhibition progressing through the vault of 

 heaven. Verily, " there is a freshness in it." 



When we reflect that Mr. Audubon is an Ame- 

 rican; that he has lived the best part of his life in 

 America; that the two birds themselves were Ame- 

 rican, and that their wonderfu^ encounter took place 

 in America, we Englishmen marvel much that Mr. 

 Audubon did not allow the press of his own country . 

 to have the honour to impart to the world so asto- 

 nishing an adventure. 



THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



MR. AUDUBON tells us, that in one week the young 

 of the ruby-throated humming-bird are ready to fly. 

 One would suppose, by this, that they must be 

 hatched with a good coating of feathers to begin 

 with. Old Dame Nature sometimes performs odd 

 pranks. We are informed that our crooked-back 

 Dicky the Third was born with teeth ; and Ovid 

 mentions the astonishingly quick growth of certain 

 men. He says, in his account of the adventures of 

 Captain Cadmus, who built Thebes, that the captain 

 employed some men as masons who had just sprung 

 up out of the earth. 



I have read Mr. Audubon's account of the growth 



