126 THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



of the humming-bird, and I have read Mr. Ovid's 

 account of the growth of Captain Cadmus's masons, 

 and both very attentively. I think the veracity of 

 the one is as apparent as the veracity of the other. 

 What, in the name of skin and feathers, I ask, has 

 Mr. Audubon found in the economy of the ruby- 

 throated humming-bird to enable him to inform 

 Englishmen that its young can fly in so short a space 

 of time ? The young of no other bird that we are 

 acquainted with, from the condor to the wren, can 

 fly when only a week old. 



The humming-bird, in every part of its body and 

 plumage, is quite as perfect as the eagle itself; 

 neither is it known to differ in the duration of its 

 life from any of the smaller birds of the forest which 

 it inhabits. Like them, it bursts the shell in a state 

 of nudity ; like them, it is blind for some days; and, 

 like them, it has to undergo the gradual process of 

 fledging, which is so slow in its operation, that I 

 affirm, without fear of refutation, it cannot possibly 

 produce, in the space of one short week, a series 

 of feathers capable of supporting the bird through 

 the air. 



Again, the precocious flying of the young birds, 

 argues precocity of feathers; and this would authorise 

 us to look for precocity of lustre in the male. But 

 Mr. Audubon informs us that the male does not re- 

 ceive its full brilliancy of colour until the succeeding 

 spring ; and I myself can affirm, from actual obser- 

 vation, that the additional plumage which adorns 

 some humming-birds does not make its appearance 

 till towards the middle of the second year. 



