HUMMING-BIRDS. (j<) 



at the beginning of spring, or at the time when the 

 business of reproduction commences. This is marked 

 either by a greater brilliancy, or by the appearance of 

 rich ruffs, crests, or some additional appendage of the 

 skin or feathers. After the first months of the love 

 season have passed, these are lost, and at the au- 

 tumnal moult, the plumage is thickened, and com- 

 mences the preparation for a sufficient clothing in win- 

 ter, and a display of splendour for the ensuing spring. 

 Among our native birds, we have constant and 

 familiar examples of this, though perhaps they are 

 not always noticed. The Chaffinch loses the brown 

 tips to the feathers on his crown, and they become 

 a rich and beautiful blue ; the Linnet those of his 

 breast, which assume a lovely crimson tint. The 

 Snow Bunting, so common on the wild moors dur- 

 ing winter, from a pleasing brown changes to a pure 

 black and white. The Heron and Lapwing gain their 

 beautiful crests, the former his pendent breast fea- 

 thers, and the Egrets receive their valuable orna- 

 ments. The numerous tribes of Bustards, Plovers, 

 and Sandpipers, are some of the most remarkable for 

 the distinct variation of their colours. The lower 

 parts of the males, in almost all the species of the 

 two first groups, assume a deep and glossy black 

 while in the Sandpipers, bright shades of chestnut 

 brown are the emblems that the season of incuba- 

 tion has commenced, and in one singular instance, 

 the variable ruff reminds us of the Ruff-necked Hum- 

 ming-birds. Among the web-footed water-fowl we 



