284< VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



tractive, though the most diminutive, were the 

 countless hosts of Humming-birds, which, throng- 

 ing the air, make a western landscape alive with 

 their radiance. No wonder that the early Spanish 

 writers should speak in lavish eulogy of their beauty, 

 since even the apathetic Indians, though familiar 

 with them all their lives, could not avoid involun- 

 tary homage to their loveliness, calling them by 

 the names of gems, stars, and sunbeams. And all 

 succeeding visitors to those shores, though perhaps 

 but little observant of nature, have been struck with 

 unfailing admiration at the sight of these living me- 

 teors ; while the naturalist, in his delighted enthu- 

 siasm, labours in vain for words to draw the picture 

 which he beholds. Mr. Swainson justly remarks, 

 " In speaking of these charming birds, the naturalist 

 is almost tempted to abandon that didactic style 

 best suited to his subject, and to clothe his informa- 

 tion in the language of poetry ; yet both must fail 

 in conveying to the mind an adequate idea of their 

 surpassing beauty. The rainbow colours of the most 

 resplendent gems are here superadded to a living 

 form, which in itself is exquisitely graceful and ani- 

 mated in all its movements : the flight of these 

 pigmy birds is so rapid as to elude the eye ; for a 

 few moments they may be seen hovering over a 

 flower, but so soon as they have sipped its sweetness, 

 they vanish in an instant." * 



They are the smallest of birds, many of them 

 being less than a man's thumb, while one tiny crea- 



* Nat. Hist, and Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 147. 



