THE HUMMINGBIRDS. 



Maxime mirande in mittimus ! 



Minutest of the feathered kind, 

 Possessing every charm combined. 

 Nature, in -forming thee, designed 



That thou shouldst be, 

 A proof within how little space 

 She can comprise such perfect grace. 

 Rendering the lovely, fairy race 



Beauty's epitome. 



— Charlotte Smith. 



The discovery of 



" The rare little bird of the bower, 

 Bird of the musical wing," 



being coincident with that of the New 

 World, the ancients were denied the ex- 

 hilarating shock of delight that has been 

 vouchsafed to their descendants when 

 that 



" Quick feathered spangled shot, 



Rapid as thought from spot to spot. 

 Showing the fairy humming-bird," 



and their writings lack the glamour of 

 his "glossy, varying dyes ; for, according 

 to Lesson, the first mention which is made 

 of hummingbirds in the narratives of ad- 

 venturers who proceeded to America, not 

 with the design of studying its natural 

 productions, but for the discovery of gold, 

 dates from 1558. 



Of the name hummingbird or hum- 

 bird, Professor Newton says its earliest 

 use, as yet discovered, is said to be by 

 Thomas Morton in The New England 

 Canaan, printed in 1632, while in 1646 

 Sir Thomas Browne wrote : "So have 

 all Ages conceaved, and most are still 

 ready to sweare, the Wren is the least of 

 Birds, yet the discoveries of America, 

 and even of our own Plantations, shewed 

 us one farre lesse, that is the Hum-bird, 

 not much exceeding a Beetle." Mr. Ridg- 

 way cites the case of Mr. Benjamin But- 

 tivant, writing from Boston in 1697, who 

 told of a hum-bird that he fed with hon- 

 ey, that was "A Prospect to manv Com- 

 ers." 



"The earliest notice of the common 

 Ruby-throat that I have been able to 



find," Mr. Ridgway continues, "is an ex- 

 tract from a letter written from Boston 

 in New England, October 26, 1670, by 

 John Winthrop, Esq., governor of Con- 

 necticut, to Francis Willoughby, Esq., 

 and published in the philosophical Tran- 

 sactions." This letter reads as follows : 



"I send you withal, a little Box, with 

 a Curiosity in it, which perhaps will be 

 counted a trifle, yet 'tis rarely to be met 

 with, even here. It is the curiously con- 

 trived nest of the Humming-Bird, so 

 called from the humming noise it maketh 

 as it flies. 'Tis an exceeding little Bird, 

 and only seen in Summer, and mostly in 

 gardens, flying from flower, sucking Hon- 

 ey out of the flowers as the Bee doth ; 

 as it flieth not lighting on the flower, but 

 hovering over it, sucking with its long 

 Bill a sweet substance. There are in the 

 same Nest two of that Bird's eggs. 

 Whether they used to have more at once 

 I know not. I never saw but one of 

 these Nests before, and that was sent 

 over formerly with some other Rarities, 

 but the vessel miscarrying, you received 

 them not." 



Of the long bill with which it sucketh 

 the sweet substance, the tongue is the es- 

 sential feature, so far as sustenance is 

 concerned ; consisting of a long double 

 cylinder, "like a double-barreled gun," 

 Goodrich thought — a most convenient in- 

 strument for imbibing nectar — flattened 

 and sometimes barbed at the end, for the 

 capture of the minute insects that con- 

 stitute the less aesthetic portion of their 

 nutriment — for it has been many times 

 demonstrated that, airy and fairy as they 



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