46 cassell's book of birds. 



possessed by the members of this most attractive family has been enthusiastically described by many 

 writers, but never more eloquently than by Buffon. " Of all animated beings," says that naturalist, 

 " the Humming Bird is the most elegant in form and brilliant in colour. The stones and metals 

 polished by art are not comparable to this gem of nature ; she has placed it in the order of birds, but 

 amongst the tiniest of the race — maxime miranda in minimis — she has loaded it with all the gifts of 

 which she has only imparted a share to other birds — agility, nimbleness, grace, and rich atlire, all 

 belong to this little favourite. The emerald, the ruby, and the topaz glitter in her garb, which is 

 never soiled with the dirt of earth, for, leading an aerial life, it rarely touches the turf even for an 

 instant. Always in the air, flying from flower to flower, it shares their freshness and their splendour, 

 imbibes their nectar, and only inhabits those climes in which they are unceasingly renewed. The 

 Humming Bird seems to follow the sun, to advance, to retire with him, and to fly on the wings of 

 the wind in pursuit of an eternal spnng." 



" Along the whole line of the Andes, which form as it were the backbone of America," -(vrites 

 Gould, in the valuable introduction to his magnificent work on the " Trochilidos," " at remarkably 

 short intervals occur species of this family of birds of the greatest possible beauty, which are not only 

 specifically but generically distinct from each other. Abundant as the species may be towards the 

 northern and southern portions of the great chain of mountains, they vastly increase in number as we 

 approach the equator. The equatorial regions teem with species and even genera that are not found 

 elsewhere. Between the snow-line of the summit of the towering volcanoes ar)d their bases many 

 zones of temperature occur, each of which has it own especial animal and vegetable life. The Alpine 

 region has its flora, accompanied by insects especially adapted to such situations ; and attendant on 

 these are peculiar forms of Humming Birds, which never descend to the hot valleys, and scarcely 

 even to the cooler and more temperate paramos. Many of the higher zones of extinct and existing 

 volcanoes have their own fauna and flora, even in the interior walls of ancient craters, wherever 

 vegetation has gained a footing. Some species of Humming Birds have there, and there only, as yet 

 been discpvered. It is the exploration pf guch situations that has led tQ the acquisition of so many 

 additional species of this family of birds, which now reach to mqre than 400. From Santa Fd 

 de Bogota alone many thousands of skins are annually sent to London and Paris. The Indians 

 readily learn the art of preserving them, and as a certain amount of emolument attends the collecting 

 of these objects they often traverse great distances for the purpose of procuring them. Districts 

 stretching more than 100 miles away from Bogota are strictly searched, and hence it is that from 

 these places alone we receive no less than seventy species belonging to this family, In like manner 

 the residents of many parts of Brazil employ their slaves in preparing their skirls for the European 

 markets, and many thousands are annually sent from Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco ; the 

 inmates of convents are also supplied with many of the more richly-coloured species for the 

 manufacture of feather flowers. How numerous then must these birds be in their native wilds ; and 

 how wonderfully must they keep iri check the peculiar kind of insect life upon which they feed !" 



In disposition the Humming Birds exhibit a fearlessness and courage quite out of proportion to 

 the delicacy of their structure, and we might cite many instances of the fierce encounters in which 

 they sometimes engage ; we must, however, confine ourselves to an extract from Gosse's interesting 

 litde book on the birds of Jamaica. 



" The pugnacity of the Humming Bird has been often spoken of ; two of the same species can 

 scarcely suck flowers from the same bush without a rencontre. I once witnessed a combat between 

 two which was prosecuted with much pertinacity, and protracted to an unusual length. It was in the 

 month of April at Phoenix Park, near Savannah-la-Mer. In the garden were two trees of the kind 

 called Malay apple, one of which was but a yard or two from my window. The genial influence of 



