90 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



creature. " Now it flutters from flower to flower, 

 to sip the silver dew — it is now a ruby — now 

 a topaz — now an emerald — now all burnished 

 gold!"* 



Fluttering with airy graceful motion from 

 flower to flower, it speeds on humming winglets 

 so lightly as to seem upheld by magic. The 

 dazzling beauty of its delicate form, clothed in 

 plumage of resplendent changing green, is in- 

 creased by the brilliancy of its throat, now glow- 

 ing with fiery hue, now transformed into a deep 

 velvet-like black, as throwing itself onwards 

 with inconceivable vivacity and swiftness, it 

 darts like a gleam of light upon the eye. Skim- 

 ming on fairy wing, it carefully approaches the 

 opening blossoms. Poised in the air, its spark- 

 ling eye peeps cautiously into their immost re- 

 cesses, like a skilful florist, careful to remove the 

 hurtful insects that lurk within their beauteous 

 petals, and threaten them with decay. In this 

 process so light and rapid are the motions of its 

 ethereal pinions, that they seem rather to fan and 

 cool the flower, than injure its fragile loveliness, 

 while the dreamy murmuring of the bird, lulling 

 the insects to repose, hastens the moment of their 

 destruction. Instantly as the delicate bil) of the 

 bird enters the flower cup, the enemy is irawn 



* Charles Waterton's Wanderings, p. 114. 



