560 A VES-C REE PER... HUM MING-BIRD. 



THE CREEPERi 



Is the smallest of European birds, if we except the crested wren, and weighs 

 only five drachms. The bill is hooked like a sickle. The upper part of the 

 body is variegated with brown and black, and the breast and belly are of 

 a silver white. This bird is- very common in England, though, from its 

 extreme agility in eluding the eye of the spectator, it is less frequently seen 

 than other common birds. It feeds upon insects, and builds in the holes of 

 trees. The nest is formed of grass, lined with ■ feathers. Along the stems 

 of trees it runs readily in every direction. 



Nearly eighty species, foreign and domestic, have been enumerated of this 

 bird. The color of the foreign species is in general olive green. It inhabits 

 the Sandwich Islands, and is one of the birds, whose plumage the natives 

 make use of for their feathered garments. 



THE HUMMING.BIRD.2 



Of this charming little animal there are not less than sixty species, from 

 tlie size of a small wren down to that of a bee. An European could never 

 have supposed a bird existing so very small, and yet completely furnished 

 •with a bill, feathers, wings, and intestines, exactly resembling those of the 

 largest kind. A bird not so big as the end of one's little finger, would pro- 

 bably be supposed but a creature of imagination, were it not seen in infinite 

 numbers, and as frequent as butterflies in a summer's day, sporting in the 

 fields of America, from flower to flower, and extracting their sweets with its 

 little bill. 



' Certhia familiaris, Lin. The genus Ccrihin has the bill long, or of medium length, 

 more or less curved, triangular, compressed, slender; nostrils basal, naked, pierced hori- 

 zontally, and half closed by a membrane ; three toes liefore, the outer united at its base to 

 the intermediate one ; claws much hooked, that on the hind toe longest ; tail graduated 

 with stiff pointed shafts; fourth quill feather longest. 



-The genus Trochihis which embraces the humming-bird, has the bill long, straight, or 

 arcuated, tubular, very slender, base depressed, acuminated ; upper mandible almost con- 

 cealing the lower; tongue long, extensible, bifid, and tubular; nostrils open before, 

 covered by a broad membrane- legs very short ; tarsus shorter than the middle toe; the 

 three anterior toes nearly divided ; wings graduated, the first feather longest. 



