ORNITHOLOGY. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF HUMMING-BIRDS. 



His silken vest was purfled o'er with green, 



And crimson rose-leaves wrought the sprigs between ; 



His diadem, a topaz, beamed so bright, 



The moon was dazzled with its purest light. 



THE geographical distribution of the various races 

 of created beings has of late excited considerable in- 

 terest, and a mass of facts have been collected which 

 go far to prove that it is regulated by certain laws, 

 chiefly dependent upon the conjoined influences of 

 climate and temperature. Birds are equally subject 

 to those rules, though, as might be suspected from 

 their more extended locomotive powers, their ranges 

 are wider, and some groups and species are more 

 generally spread over the world than those beings 

 which require the assistance of a solid medium to 

 transport themselves from place to place. Instances 

 of this may be given in one or two examples. The 

 great families of the falcons, pigeons, and swallows, 

 are universally diffused ; parrots are found in every 



