156 HUMMING-BIRDS. 



ORDER PASSERES. 



Humming-Bird. 

 Trochilus. 



THESE beautiful little creatures are the most di- 

 minutive of all the feathered race. They are 

 found only in America, and most abundantly in 

 the hottest parts of South America, between 

 the tropics. There are birds which very much 

 resemble them, found both in Asia and Africa ; 

 but they differ in some respects, and naturalists 

 now call them by other names, and confine that 

 of humming-bird to these little gems of the Ame- 

 rican forest. The brightness of their colours, and 

 the elegance of their forms, can only be imagined 

 by those who have seen them. When flying in 

 the sun, they look as if they were covered with 

 gems and gold. The native American Indians, 

 struck with the splendour of their hues, have 

 called them "the hairs of the sun." The smallest 

 humming-bird is of a grey violet colour, and the 

 size of a bee. There are others, three or four 

 inches long ; and one, called the giant hum- 



