HUMMING BIRD. 115 
Mr. William Bartram observes of the Mocking Bird, that “ formerly, 
say thirty or forty years ago, they were numerous, and often staid all 
winter with us, or the year through, feeding on the berries of ivy, smi- 
lax, grapes, persimmons, and other berries. The ivy (Hedera helix) 
they were particularly fond of, though a native of Europe. We have an 
ancient plant adhering to the wall of the house, covering many yards 
of surface; this vine is very fruitful, and here many would feed and 
lodge during the winter, and, in very severe cold weather, sit on the 
top of the chimney to warm themselves.” He also adds, “ I have ob- 
served that the Mocking Bird ejects from his stomach through his 
mouth the hard kernels of berries, such as smilax, grapes, &c., retain- 
ing the pulpy part.” * 
HUMMING BIRD.{—TROCHILUS COLUBRIS. — Fies. 40, 41. 
Trochilus colubris, Linn. Syst. i. p. 191, No. 12. — L’Oiseau mouche a gorge rouge 
de la Caroline, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 716, No. 13, t. 36, Fig. 6. —Le Rubis, Buff. 
Ois. vi. p. 13. —Humming Bird, Catesb. Car. i. 65.— Red-throated Humming 
Bird, Edw. i. 38, male and female.— Lath. Syn. ii. 769, No. 35.— Peale’s 
Museum, No. 2520. 
TROCHILUS COLUBRIS, — Linn xvus. 
Trochilus colubris, Bonap. Synop. p. 98. — The Ruby-throated Humming Bird, Aud. 
pl. xlvii. Orn. Biog. i. 248.—Trochilus colubris, Northen Hamming Bird, 
North. Zool. ii. p. 323, 
Nature, in every departrnent of her work, seems to delight in vari- 
ety; and the present subject of our history is almost as singular for 
its minuteness, beauty, want of song, and manner of feeding, as the 
preceding is for unrivalled excellence of notes, and plainness of plu- 
ardson, it was discovered by Captain Cook at Nootka Sound, and described by 
Latham from these specimens. — Ep. 
* Letter from Mr. Bartram to the author. ‘ 
+ The “ Fairy Humming Birds,” ‘‘ The Jewels of Ornithology,” 
“¢ Least of the winged vagrants of the sky,”? 
though amply dispersed over the southern continent of the New World, from their 
delicate and slender structure, being unable to bear the severities of a hardier cli- 
mate, are, with two exceptions, withdrawn from its northern parts ; and it is with 
wonder that we see creatures of such tiny dimensions occasionally daring to brave 
even the snows and frosts of a northern latitude. The present species, though 
sometimes exceeding its appointed time, is obliged to seek warmer abodes during 
winter; and it is another subject for astonishment and reflection, how they are 
enabled to perform a lengthened migration, where the slightest gale would waft 
them far from their proper eourse. Mr. Audubon is of opinion, that they mi- 
grate during the night, passing through-the air in long undulations, raising them- 
selves for some distance at an angle of about 40°, and then falling in a curve ; but 
he adds, that the smallness of their size preckides the possibility of following sem 
farther than fifty or sixty yards, even with + good glass. 
The Humming Birds, or what are gener ily known by the genus Trochilus of 
Linneus have been, through the researches of late travellers and waturalists, vastly 
