TROCIIILID.E — THE HLMMlNG-lilllDS. 437 



Family TROCHILIDJB. — The Humming-Birds. 



CiiAK. Leiust of all birds ; steniuin very deep ; bill subulate, and },'enendly longer than 

 the head, slraijjht, arched, or upcurved. Tongue composed of two lengthened cylindrical 

 united tubes, capable of great protrusion, and bilid at tip; nostrils basal, linear, and 

 covered by an operculum ; wings lengthened, pointed ; first ipiill usually longest except 

 iu ^l«7/j'<)M.s, where it is the second; primaries, 10 ; secondaries, (J ; tail of ten feathers. 

 Tarsi and feet very diminutive, claws very sharp. (Goui.n.) 



There is no grou]) of birds so interesting to the ornitliologist or to the 

 casiuil observer as the Huniiiung-Hirds, at once the smallest in size, the most 

 gorgeously beautiful in color, and almost the most abundant in species, of 

 any single family of birds. They are strictly contined to the continent and 

 islands of America, and are most abundant in the Central American and 

 Andean States, though single species range almost to the Arctic regions on 

 the north luid to Patagonia on the south, as well as from the sea-coast to 

 the frozen summits of the Andes. Many are very limited in their range ; 

 some confined to particular islands, even though of small dimensions, or to 

 the sunmiits of certain mountain-peaks. 



The bill of the Humming-lJird is awl-shaped or subulate ; thin, anil sharp- 

 pointed ; straight or curved ; sometimes as long as the head, sometimes 

 nnich longer. The mandibles are excavated to the tip for the lodgement of 

 tlie tongue, and form a tube by the close ajjposition of their cutting edges. 

 There is no indication of stiff bristly feathers at the base of the mouth. 

 The tongue has some resemblance to that of the Woodpecker in the elonga- 

 tion of the coinua backwards, so as to pass round the back of the skull, and 

 then anteriorly to the base of tlie bill. The tongue itself is of very jieculiar 

 structure, consisting anteriorly of two hollow threads closed at the ends and 

 united behind. The food of the Humming-lUrd consists almost entirely of 

 insects, which are captured by protruding the tongue in flowers of various 

 shapes without opening the bill very wide. 



The genera of Humming-Birds are very difficult to define. This is partly 

 owing to the great number of the species, of which nearly four hundred and 

 fifty have been recognized by authoi-s, all of them with but few e.xccjttions 

 dinunutive in size and almost reiiuiring a lens for their critical examination, 

 so that characters for generic separation, distinct enough in other families, are 

 hero overlookeil or not fully apjireciated. A still greater tliliicidty, perhajis, is 

 tlie great dilTerence in torm, especially of tlie tail, between the male and female, 

 the young male occu]n'ing an intermediate jiosition. Tlie coloration, too, is 

 almost always very dilferent witli sex and age, and usually any generic 

 characters derived frotn features other titan those of bill, feet, and wing do 

 not api)ly to the females at all. 



In the large number of species of ilunnning-Birds arranged in about one 



