

THE HUMMING-BIRD. 125 



I have never read any thing in the annals of or- 

 nithology that bears any similarity to this aquila- 

 vulturian exhibition progressing through the vault 

 of heaven. Verily, " there is a freshness in it." 



When we reflect that Mr Audubon is an Ame- 

 rican ; that he has lived the best part of his life in 

 America; that the two birds themselves were Ame- 

 rican, and that their wonderful encounter took place 

 in America, we Englishmen marvel much that Mr. 

 Audubon did not allow the press of his own country 

 to have the honour to impart to the world so asto- 

 nishing an adventure. 



THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



MR. AUDUBON tells us, that in one week the young 

 of the ruby-throated humming-bird are ready to fly. 

 One would suppose, by this, that they must be 

 hatched with a good coating of feathers to begin with. 

 Old Dame Nature sometimes performs odd pranks. 

 We are informed that our crooked-back Dicky 

 the Third was born with teeth ; and Ovid mentions 

 the astonishingly quick growth of certain men. He 

 says, in his account of the adventures of Captain 

 Cadmus, who built Thebes, that the captain em- 

 ployed some men as masons who had just sprung up 

 out of the earth. 



I have read Mr. Audubon's account of the growth 



