96 HUMMING-BIRDS. 



so much extolled by Cortes were embroidered with 

 their skins ; the Indian could appreciate their love- 

 liness, delighting to adorn his bride with gems and 

 jewellery plucked from the starry frontlets of these 

 beauteous forms. Every epithet which the ingenuity 

 of language could invent, has been employed to depict 

 the richness of their colouring ; the lustres of the topaz, 

 of emeralds, and rubies, have been compared with 

 them, and applied in their names. " The hue of roses 

 steeped in liquid fire," and even the " cheveux de 

 1'astre du jour" of the imaginative Buffon, fall short 

 of their versatile tints.* Let us enquire, however, 

 whether an exterior of " gorgeous plumery " is all 

 which they possess, and if there is no beautiful adap- 

 tation of structure to supply the wants of so frail a 

 tenement. 



The humming-birds, or what are known by the 

 genus Trochilus of Linnaeus, have lately received vast 

 additions to the number of their species, and, though 

 forming a large and closely connected group, they 

 exhibit a great variety of forms and characters, which 

 are not easily comprehended in the old twofold divi- 

 sion, tf into those with straight, and those with curved 

 bills/' They have been, accordingly, divided by 

 modern ornithologists into various sections and genera, 

 which will be detailed in that part of our work devoted 

 to their classical arrangement. 



We previously mentioned that these birds were 



* Their name in the Indian language is Beams or Locks of 

 the Sun. 



