HUMMING-BIRDS. 97 



nearly confined to the tropical portions of the New 

 World, and, according to our best information, that 

 great archipelago of islands between Florida and the 

 mouths of the Orinoco, with the mainland of the 

 southern continent, until it passes the Tropic of Capri- 

 corn, literally swarms with them.* In the wild and 

 uncultivated parts, they inhabit those forests of mag- 

 nificent timber overhung with lianas and the superb 

 tribe of bignonacese, the huge trunks clothed with a 

 rich drapery of parasites, whose blossoms only give 

 way in beauty to the sparkling tints of their airy 

 tenants ; but since the cultivation of various parts of 

 the country, they abound in the gardens, and seem to 

 delight in society, becoming familiar and destitute of 

 fear, hovering over one side of a shrub, while the fruit 

 or flowers is plucked from that opposite. As we recede 

 from the tropics, on either side, the numbers decrease, 

 though some species are found in Mexico, and others 

 in Peru, which do not appear to exist elsewhere. 

 Thus Mr Bullock discovered several species at a high 

 elevation, and consequently low temperature, on the 

 lofty table lands of Mexico, and in the woods in the 

 vicinity of the snowy mountains of Orizabo ; while 

 Captain King, in the late survey of the southern 

 coasts, met with numerous members of this diminu- 

 tive family flying about in a snow-storm near the 

 Straits of Magellan, and discovered two species, which 

 he considered undescribed, in the remote island of 



* It is remarked by Lesson, that the colibris, or those species 

 with curved bills, never pass the iutertropical limits. 



