xii INTRODUCTION. 



South American Indians. If the country glanced at in the foregoing remarks provided the naturalists 

 of the days of Linnaeus with ample materials for study and investigation, hov^^ much greater would have been 

 their amazement and delight had exploration made them acquainted with the hidden treasures of the great 

 Andean ranges, which stretch along the entire country, from the Rocky Mountains on the north to near 

 Cape Horn on the south. Along the whole line of this great backbone, as it were, of America, at remark- 

 ably short intervals, occur species of this family of hirds of the greatest beauty and interest, which are not 

 only specifically but generically distinct from each other. Whole groups of them, remarkable for their 

 singularity, have become known to us from the inquiries and explorations of later travellers ; and, abundant 

 as the species may be towards the northern and southern portions of the great chain of mountains, they 

 vastly increase as we approach the equator. These equatorial regions teem with species, and even genera, 

 which are not found elsewhere. Between the snow-line of the summits of the towering volcanos and their 

 bases, many zones of temperature occur, each of which has its own especial animal and vegetable life. The 

 alpine region has its particular flora, accompanied by insects especially adapted to such situations ; and 

 attendant upon 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 highest cones of extinct and of 

 existing volcanos have their own faunas and floras ; even in the interior walls of ancient craters, wherever 

 vegetation has gained a footing, some species of Humming-Birds have there, and there only, been as yet 

 discovered. It is the exploration of such situations that has led to the acquisition of so many additional 

 species of this family of birds, which now reach to more than 400 in number. 



It might be thought by some persons that 400 species of birds so diminutive in size, and of one family, 

 could scarcely be distinguished from each other; but any one who studies the subject will soon perceive 

 that such is not the case. Even the females, which assimilate more closely to each other than the males, 

 can be separated with perfect certainty ; nay, even a tail-feather will be sufficient for a person well-versed 

 in the subject to say to what genus and species the bird from which it has been taken belongs. I mention 

 this fact to show that what we designate a species has really distinctive and constant characters ; and in the 

 whole of my experience, with many thousands of Humming-Birds passing through my hands, I have never 

 observed an instance of any variation which would lead me to suppose that it was the result of a union of 

 two species. I write this without bias, one way or the other, as to the question of the origin of species. 

 I am desirous of representing nature in her wonderful ways as she presents herself to my attention at the 

 close of my work, after a period of twelve years of incessant labour, and not less than twenty years of 

 interesting study. I am, of course, here speaking of the special object of my own studies — the Humming- 

 Birds. 



It is somewhat remarkable that any persons living in the present enlightened age should persist in asserting 

 that Humming-Birds are found in India and Africa. Yet there are many who believe that such is the case. 

 Even in a work but recently published, it is stated that Humming-Birds and Toucans are both found in the 

 last-mentioned country ; and I was once brought into a rather stormy altercation with a gentleman who 

 asserted that the Humming-Bird was found in England, and that he had seen it fly in Devonshire. Now 

 the object seen in Devonshire was the insect called the Humming-Bird Moth, Macroglossa stellarum ; and 

 the birds supposed to belong to this family by residents and travellers in India and Africa are of a 

 totally different group— the Nectanniidce or Sun-Birds. These latter birds have no relationship to the 

 TrocMlidw x^ they are nor even re])resentatives of them in the countries alluded to; and their only points of 



