HUMMING-BIRDS. 95 



and ganga, or sand-grouse, beautifully formed for abode 

 in these weary solitudes. They sweep them with a 

 flight as rapid as the mighty hurricane, and receive as 

 much enjoyment in a boundless waste, as the ruff- 

 necked and pheasant-tailed grouse in the rich and 

 luxuriant prairies of North America, or our native 

 moorfowl on the heath-clad knolls of its Highland 

 hills. In like manner do Africa and India, in their 

 creepers and honey suckers, present splendid types to 

 a class of fairy birds nearly confined to the deep and 

 shady forests of tropical America. 



The beautiful and delicate beings to which we must 

 now particularly direct the attention of our readers, 

 appear to have excited the admiration of their dis- 

 coverers, and, indeed, of every one who has observed 

 them, either reveling in their native glades, or at rest 

 in the more artificial display of our museums, by the 

 spirited proportions of their form, and the dazzling 

 splendour of their plumage. 



" Delicate and beautiful, 



Thick without burden, close as fishes' scales." 



The ancient Mexicans used their feathers for superb 

 mantles in the time of Montezuma,* and the pictures 



* The nation of the Aztecs call their capital Tzinzunzan, from 

 the number of humming-birds in its vicinity, -with which the 

 gtatues of their gods are adorned ; and the Indians of Patzquara 

 are still famous for this art. They compose figures of saints with 

 the feathers of the colibri, which are remarkable for the delicacy 

 of the execution, and the brilliancy of the colours. Ward?* 

 Mexico in 1827. 



