INTRODUCTION. 



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resemblance consist in their diminutive size and the showy character of their plumage. Let it be understood, 



then, once for all, that the Humming-Birds are confined to America and its islands (that is, the West Indies 



in the Atlantic, and Chiloe and Juan Fernandez in the Pacific ; none have as yet been found in the Galapagos). 



The Selasphorus nifus goes as far north as Sitka. Kotzebue informs us that it is found in summer as hioh 



as the sixty-first parallel on the Pacific coast; while, on the antarctic end of the continent. Captain King 



observed the Eustephanus galeritus flitting about among the Fuchsias of Tierra del Fuego in a snow-storm. 



Both these species, however, are migrants,^ — the northern bird retiring, as autumn approaches, to the 



more temperate climate of Mexico, while the other wends its way up to the warmer reoions of Bolivia and 



Peru, The migration of these birds is, of course, performed at directly opposite periods. Both the 



Selasphortis rufiis and the Trochilus Colubris spend the summer in high northern latitudes ; but the former 



always proceeds along the western, and the latter along the eastern parts of the country : the T. Colubris 



even extends its range as far as the fifty-seventh parallel, where it was observed by Sir John Richardson. 



Although these and some other species pass over vast extents of country, I do not believe that they are 



capable of long-continued flights: that is, I question their power of crossing seas, or more than from one 



island to another; for although we know that the two birds above-mentioned pass over many degrees of 



latitude in their migrations, I believe that these journeys are performed in a series of comparatively short 



stages, and always by land, and that the whole of their movements are more or less influenced by the 



progress of the sun north or south as the case may be. 



North America, then, may be said to have two Humming-Birds — a western and an eastern species. It 

 is true that Audubon has mentioned two others in his great "work (t\{^ Lampornis Mango ?i\\& Calypte Annce), 

 and states that the former was found at Key West in East Florida. Since then, however, I believe no 

 other example has been discovered there ; and one can scarcely understand the occurrence of the bird in 

 that part of America, since it is a native of countries and islands lying so much further south. 



Leaving North America, and proceeding south, we begin to meet with several other species, which 

 rarely extend their range to the north — viz. the Calypte Annm, C. Costce, Selasphortis platycercus, Trochilus 

 Aleocandrl, and Calothorax Calliope. These birds are also migratory, but their range is much less extensive 

 than that of the two species previously mentioned. As we advance in this direction, Hummine-Birds 

 become extremely numerous, and, as regards both genera and species, continue to increase in the more 

 southern country of Guatemala, where every variety of climate is to be found. The forest-clad mountains 

 of Vera Paz appear to afford a winter retreat to many of the northern species, as the regions con- 

 tiguous to the Atlas-range in Africa do to the numerous little warblers of this country and the continent 

 of Europe. Besides these migrants, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica have species which are either 

 stationary, or merely change their quarters in accordance with the flowering-season of the trees on which 

 they seek their food, moving east and west or vice versa according to circumstances. The countries further 

 south, or those lying between Guatemala and Panama, appear to have a bird-fauna almost peculiar to them- 

 selves ; for it is seldom that the species inhabiting Costa Rica and Veragua extend their range to the 

 northward, neither are they often found in the more southern country of New Granada. 



It is in the last-mentioned country. New Granada, that some of the finest of the Trochilidaj are found,— 

 its towering mountains having species peculiar to themselves, while its extensive paramos are tenanted by 

 forms not found elsewhere. On the principal ranges of the Andes, species exist which do not occur on the 



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