xvi INTRODUCTION. 



Jamaica possesses three, wliich are all quite distinct, and so widely different from every other, that it 

 is a perfect mystery to the naturalist how they first obtained a footing there. Nothing like interbreeding 

 between two species appears to occur in this island ; if such were the case, we could not but be aware 

 of the fact, since we have not only been for many years in the habit of receiving hundreds of birds 

 from Jamaica, but this island has had the advantage of a naturalist, Mr. Gosse, who has most closely 

 observed the birds resident there. St. Domingo has two species, differing from those of Jamaica. This 

 law with respect to the Humming-Bird inhabitants of the West Indian and Leeward Islands, is equally 

 carried out in the necklace-like string of the Windwards; but when we arrive at the island of Trinidad, the 

 species become much more numerous and partake of the character of those which inhabit the mainland — 

 the opposite shores of Venezuela. 



It may be asked, what is our present knowledge of the existing species of Humming-Birds, and if there 

 may not be others to be discovered in the great primeval forests of the western and other parts of the vast 

 continent of the new world. My reply is that, in all probability, many more than are known to us do exist, 

 and that a very lengthened period must elapse before we shall acquire anything like a perfect knowledge of 

 the group. Whatever I may have done towards the elucidation of the subject, I must only be regarded as 

 a pioneer for those who, in future ages, will render our acquaintance with this family of birds so much more 

 complete than it is at the present time. 



The regions of South America whose productions are least known are Costa Rica, Veragua, Panama, the 

 sea-bord between Carthagena and Guayaquil, the forests of La Paz and other parts of Bolivia, the whole of 

 the eastern slopes of the Andes bordering Peru and Ecuador, and the western portion of Brazil. All these 

 countries will doubtless furnish new kinds of Humming-Birds when the explorer shall extend his researches 

 into their unknow^n recesses. We may feel fully convinced that such will be the case from the circumstance 

 of single individuals in a youthful or imperfect state, which we cannot identify as belonging to any known 

 species, occasionally occurring in the great collections sent from time to time to Europe. My own collection 

 contains several examples of this kind, which will doubtless at some future day prove to belong to unde- 

 scribed species. For more than twenty long years have I been sending the most earnest entreaties, accom- 

 panied with drawings, to my correspondents in Peru and Ecuador for additional examples of that truly 

 wonderful bird the Loddigesia mirahtlis. These entreaties have been backed by the offers of large sums of 

 money to any person who would procure them ; but up to the present moment no second example has been 

 obtained. Probably the single individual killed by Mr. Matthews in the neighbourhood of Chachapoyas was 

 one which had accidentally strayed beyond the area in which the species usually dwells, and which has not 

 yet been discovered. That it may be a nocturnal bird has sometimes suggested itself to my mind, and that 

 this may be the reason why it has not since been seen. Those of my readers who are not acquainted with 

 this most wonderful member of the Trochilidae will do well to refer to the plate, in which a correct repre- 

 sentation of it is given by the masterly hand of Mr. Richter. 



The preceding remarks must, I think, have given the reader a general idea of the countries inhabited 

 by the members of the great family of Humming-Birds ; it now becomes necessary to speak of their peculiar 

 structure, and the place they appear to occupy in the Class Aves. By systematists they have been bandied 

 about from one group to another: by some they have been associated with the Sun-Birds {Nectarimce) ; by 

 others with the Cypsdinw, Picin}^, Sitting, Certhmce, &c. 



