HUMMING-BIRDS. 45 



this is the most beautiful, the most minute. Depend- 

 ing upon no single feature for attraction, upon no 

 one plume or tuft of feathers, like the bird of para- 

 dise, upon no broad-spread, glaring colors, like the 

 parrot, it is, in fact, the gem of the feathered world. 

 So often have poet and naturalist compared it, in the 

 brilliance of its flashing colors, to the gems of the min- 

 eral kingdom, that they have left little to be said, and 

 I can but repeat that it is now a topaz, now an em- 

 erald, a turquoise, or a ruby. 



East of the Mississippi and north of Florida there 

 is but one species that can be called a regular visitor ; 

 this is the well-known ruby-throated humming-bird of 

 the North. As we go south we find them increasing, 

 both in species and in number, until the region of 

 greatest abundance is reached near the Equator. 



In Dominica, half-way down the Antilles, and six- 

 teen degrees north of the Equator, I found four spe- 

 cies to replace the single one visiting the North, the 

 smallest of which were as large as the ruby-throat, 

 and the largest two inches longer. 



This latter is called the garnet-throated hummer, 

 and is five and one-half inches in length, and seven 

 in stretch of wing. It is the most abundant, as well 

 as the most beautiful, and loves the mountain valleys, 

 where are gardens of plantains and fragrant flowers. 

 Its bill and feet are black ; a brilliant gorget of garnet 

 extends from beak to breast, each feather of which is 

 semicircular, and of the deepest crimson with gold 

 reflections. It should be seen poised in air hovering 

 above a flower, or preening itself upon a dry branch, 

 with the full blaze of a tropic sunshine glancing from 

 its throat, for one to form an adequate conception of 



