y 
90 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
creature. ‘ Now it flutters from flower to flower, 
to sip the silver dew—it is now a ruby—now 
a topaz—now an emerald—now all burnished 
gold!” * 
Fluttering with airy graceful motion from 
flower to flower, it speeds on humming winglets 
so lightly as to seem upheld by magic. The 
dazzling beauty of its delicate form, clothed in 
plumage of resplendent: changing green, is in- 
creased by the brilliancy of its throat, now glow: 
ing with fiery hue, now transformed into a deep 
velvet-like black, as throwing itself onwards 
with inconceivable vivacity and swiftness, it: 
darts like a gleam of light upon the eye. Skim- 
ming on fairy wing, it carefully approaches the 
opening blossoms. Poised in the air, its spark- 
ling eye peeps cautiously into their immost re- 
cesses, like a skilful florist, careful to remove the 
hurtful insects that lurk within their beauteous 
petals, and threaten them with decay. In this 
process so light and rapid are the motions of its 
ethereal pinions, that they seem rather to fan and 
cool the flower, than injure its fragile loveliness, 
while the dreamy murmuring of the bird, lulling 
the insects to repose, hastens the moment of their 
destruction. Instantly as the delicate bill of the 
bird enters the flower cup, the enemy is Irawn 
* Charles Waterton’s Wanderings, p. 114 
