218 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1865. 



sucli and sweh. a plant must be a Water Crowfoot 

 because it was found growing in water, hndparvi- 

 florum because the flowers were small ? Yet many 

 a plant lias been added to a neat little private 

 herbarium, and many an insect transferred to a place 

 in tbe drawer, upon evidence as circumstantial ; the 

 owner nieanwliile flattering himself that he was 

 really getting "a nice collection," and debating 

 whether he ought not to be more widely acknow- 

 ledged as a man of science. One collects plants, 

 another butterflies, another postage-stamps, or 

 another autographs, or old china, and we once knew 

 an eccentric old bachelor who had a "fancy" for 

 collecting old pipes. If making the collection is all 

 the aim, then each of these worthies is as worthy as 

 the other, and all are no better for their " hobby," 

 except that the mind and body have been kept in 

 exercise, and more objectionable employment of 

 spare hours prevented. 



The fancy for collecting rare plants, or rare 

 insects, is with some enthusiasts such an infatuation 

 that they will undergo in its behalf aU kinds of 

 privation and toil, now rushing in one direction, and 

 now in another, as if they thought that their credit 

 here, and their salvation hereafter, depended upon 

 the number of rare plants or animals they had 

 aided in exterminating. It is not the rare but the 

 common species which give character to a flora or 

 fauna, and the time spent in hunting after, or 

 travelling for miles in pursuit of some rarity, 

 would be better emploj'cd in cultivating a closer 

 acquaintance with such "common things" as 

 " buttercups and daisies," or ladybirds and " cab- 

 bage-whites." 



How often have v,'c phicked a daisy and placed it 

 in the hands of such an one, asking if they could 

 find a rarer gem, and seen it cast to the ground in 

 disgust, as a thing too common to be worthy of a 

 thought. May we not believe that because it is so 

 common they know less about it ? Everybody 

 knows a daisy, and yet how few have ever compared 

 a daisy with its description, examined or dissected 

 it, or spent an hour in reading the lessons it has to 

 impart. Will no one offer in the schools of science 

 prizes for the study of " common things " ? And 

 yet there is such a prize, in the esteem and respect 

 which air true naturalists entertain for him who toils 

 day after day and year after year to present at last 

 the life-history of a honey-bee, an earthworm, or 

 such another " common thing." 



EinaUy, young friend, and despiser of "common 

 things," beware lest thy naughty heart should 

 beguile thee to think that because "thou canst 

 vocalize glibly such compounds as Qlypldpteryx 

 ScJicenicolella by the hour, that thou art the equal of 

 the patient worker, who, concentrating his powers, 

 has exhausted (if possible) a house-fly or a prim- 

 rose, and can find in these no more that is left for 

 him to learn. 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 



HUMMING-BIRDS and the wild-tangled loveli- 

 ness of tropical vegetation, appear to-be so 

 closely linked together, that we are apt to think the 

 one essential to the existence of the other. 



We naturally (at least I always did in my earlier 

 days) associate these tiniest gems of the feathered 

 creation, with glowing sunshine, gorgeous flowers, 

 grotesque orchids, palms, plantains, bananas, and 

 blacks. This is all true enough, and if we take 

 that large slice of the American continent betwixt 

 the Amazon, the Pdo Grande, and the Gila (em- 

 bracing Guiana, New Granada, Central America, 

 Mexico, and the West-India islands), as the home 

 of humming-birds, we shall pretty truthfully define, 

 Vvhat is usually assumed to be, the geographical 

 range of this group — a group entirely confined to 

 America. 



Within the above limits, the greater variety of 

 species, the most singular in form and brilliant in 

 plumage, are met with. 



Gazing on these gems of the air, one would sup- 

 pose that Nature had exhausted all her skill, in 

 lavishly distributing the richest profusion of colours, 

 and in exquisitely mingling every imaginable tint 

 and shadej to adorn these diminutive creatures, in a 

 livery more lustrously brilliant, than was ever favbri- 

 cated by the loom, or metal-worker's handicraft. 



But away from the tropics and its feathered 

 wonders, to the wild solitudes of the Rocky 

 Mountains, — it is there I want you (in imagination) 

 to wander with me, and to picture to yourself — you 

 can easily do it, if you possess a naturalist's love of 

 discovery — the delight I experienced when, for the 

 first time, I saw humming-birds up in the very 

 regions of the "ice-king." A brief narrative will 

 best convey the information — the " Science Gossip " 

 — I am desirous to impart. 



Early in the month of May, when the sun melts 

 down the doors of snow and ice, and sets free im- 

 prisoned nature, I was sent ahead of the astrono- 

 mical party, employed in marking the boundary-line 

 dividing the British possessions from those of the 

 United States, to cut out a trail, and bridge any 

 streams too deep to ford. The first impediment 

 met with was at the Little Spokan river, — little only 

 as compared with the Great Spokan, into which it 

 flov\-s. Tlie larger stream leads from the western 

 slope of the Rocky Mountains, and flows on to johi 

 the Columbia. 



It was far too deep to be crossed by any expedient 

 short of bridging ; so a bridge had to be built, an 

 operation involving quite a week's delay. The 

 place chosen, and the men set to work, my leisure 

 time was devoted to collecting. 



The snow still lingered in large patches about 

 the hollows and sheltered spots. Save a modest violet 



