THE HUMMING-BIRD, &c. 77 



bending throughout ; of thefe are above twenty forts ; fome are alfo 

 rather larger ; their manners are precifely the fame ; and knowing one is 

 knowing both. 



As foon as the fun is rifen, the humming-birds, of different kinds, are 

 feen fluttering about the flowers, without ever alighting on them. Their 

 wings vibrate fo rapidly, that it is impoflible to difcern their colours, 

 except by their glittering. They feem aclionlefs by force of their acti- 

 vity, continually in motion, vifiting flower after flower, and extracting 

 its honey. For this purpofe they pofiefs a tongue, compofed of two hol- 

 low grooves, forming a little canal, divided at the end j this is thruft 

 into the cup of the flower : upon this nedtar they fubfill. The rapid 

 motion of their wings occafions a humming found, from whence they are 

 denominated. They chafe and drive off birds twenty times their fize. 

 Impatience is their general character; they even tear in a pet, a flower 

 whofe fweet is exhautted. They are folitary. 



Their nefts are fufpended at the point of a twig of an orange, a 

 pomegranate, or a citron tree (fometimes even in houfes, if they find a 

 fmall and convenient twig for the pujpofe) ; the female is the architect, 

 while the male furniflies materials, cotton, fine mofs, and vegetable 

 fibres ; of thefe a neft is compofed (about the (ize of an hen's egg cue 

 in two), warmly lined with cotton. They lay two eggs, the fize of fmall 

 peas, white as fnow, with here and there a yellow fpeck : the male and 

 female fit by turns, but the female mod j Ihe feldom quits the nefl', ex- 

 cept a few minutes morning and evening, when the dew is upon the 

 flowers, and their honey in perfedion. During this (hort interval, the 

 male takes her place ; for the egg is fo fmall, that expofing it ever i'o 

 fliort a time to the weather, might injure it : flie fits twelve days, when 

 the young appear, the fize of a fly, at firfl: bare ; by degrees they are 

 covered with down j and at lafl: with feathers ; but lefs beautiful than thofe 

 of their parents. 



Father Mondidier, in the m/iflion to America, found the nefl: of a 

 colibri in a llied, and took it in, when the young were about fifteen 

 days old: he placed them in a cage at his chamber window, to be amufcd 

 by their fportive flutterings ; but he was foon furprifed to fee the old 

 ones, that came and fed their brood regularly every hour in the day. 

 By thefe means they themfelves foon grew fo tame that they feldom quit- 

 ted the chamber; but, without any conftraint, came to live with their 

 young ones. All four have frequently come to perch upon their matter's 



Part IV. No. 26. O ^ hand. 



