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HUMMINGBIRDS. 



Trochilidse. 



LOWERS and gems cannot be compared in beauty with the Humming- 

 birds. Since the discovery of America these brilliant creatures have 

 been a source of admiration and wonder to the man of science as 

 well as to the simple tiller of the soil. In allusion to their exquisite 

 beauty, and their constant connection with gorgeous flowers they 

 have been called Honey-birds, Flower Nymphs, Flower Fairies, and 

 Flower Elfs. The Brazilians have given them the name Flower Kissers (Beija 

 Flores). They are the most admirable, the most gorgeously colored, the 

 loveliest and most graceful, and the smallest and most delicate of all birds. 

 They are so unique that no other birds can bear comparison. They are 

 the true birds of paradise, as all the colors of the rainbow, the lustre of 

 precious stones, the brilliancy of the flowers, the glow of the setting sun, 

 the hues of the early morning sky, the silvery light of the moon, the sparkle of the stars, 

 the glitter of gold and silver appears to reflect from their exquisite plumage. All the 

 poetry of Nature is combined in these fairies flitting from flower to flower. Buffbn con- 

 siders-the Hummingbird "of all animated beings the most elegant in form and most 

 splendid in coloring. Precious stones and metals artificially polished, can never be 

 compared to this jewel of Nature, which has placed it in the order of birds at the 

 bottom of the scale of magnitude — maximd miranda in m/rt/rais— while all the gifts 

 which are only shared among others — nimbleness, rapidity, sprightliness, grace, and 

 rich decoration — have been profusely bestowed upon this little favorite. The emerald, 

 the ruby, the topaz, sparkle in its plumage, which is never soiled by the dust of the 

 ground, for its whole life being aerial, it rarely lights on the turf It dwells in the air, 

 and flitting from flower to flower, it seems to be itself a flower in freshness and splendor; 

 it feeds on their nectar, and resides in climates where they glow in perpetual succession; 

 for the few which migrate out of the tropics during the summer make but a transitory 



