GENUS 50. TROCH1LUS. HUMMING-BIRD. 



SPECIES. T. COLUBRIS. 



HUMMING-BIRD. 



[Plate X.Figs. 3 and 4.] 



Trochilus colubris. LINN. Syst. i, p. 191, 7Vo, 12. JSOiseau 

 mouche a gorge rouge de la Caroline, BRISS. Orn. HI, p. 716, 

 JVo. 13, t. 36, jfig. 6. Le Rubis, BUFF. Ois. vi, p. 13. #Mm- 

 ming-Bird, CATESB. Car. i, 65. Red-throated Humming-bird, 

 EDW. i, 38, male and female. LATH. Syn. n, 769, JVo. 35. 

 PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 2520. 



NATURE in every department of her works seems to delight 

 in variety; and the present subject of our history is almost as 

 singular for its minuteness, beauty, want of song and manner of 

 feeding, as the Mocking-bird is for unrivalled excellence of notes, 

 and plainness of plumage. Though this interesting and beautiful 

 genus of birds comprehends upwards of seventy species, all of 

 which, with a very few exceptions, are natives of America and 

 its adjacent islands, it is yet singular, that the species now be- 

 fore us should be the only one of its tribe that ever visits the 

 territory of the United States. 



According to the observations of my friend Mr. Abbot, of Sa- 

 vannah, in Georgia, who has been engaged these thirty years 

 in collecting and drawing subjects of natural history in that part 

 of the country, the Humming-bird makes its first appearance 

 there, from the south, about the twenty-third of March 5 two 

 weeks earlier than it does in the county of Burke, sixty miles 

 higher up the country towards the interior; and at least five 

 weeks sooner than it reaches this part of Pennsylvania. As it 

 passes on to the northward as fair as the interior of Canada, where 



