THE HUMMING BIRDS. 



By Robert Ridgway. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Minutest of the feathered kind, 

 Possessing every charm combin'd, 

 Nature, in forming thee, design'd 



That thou shouldst be 



A proof within how little space 



She can comprise such perfect grace, 



Rendering thy lovely fairy race 



Beauty's epitome. 



Thou burnished colors to bestow, 

 Her pencil in the heavenly bow 

 She dipp'd, and made thy plumes to glow 

 With every hue. 



— Charlotte Smith. 



Of all the numerous groups .nto which the birds are divided there is 

 none other so numerous in species, so varied in form, so brilliant in 

 plumage, and so different from all others in their mode of life. Inhab- 

 itants exclusively of the tropical and temperate portions of America, 

 they constitute the most charming element in the wonderfully varied 

 bird-life of the New World. Buffon considers the Humming Bird "of all 

 animated beings . . . the most elegant in form and brilliant in color. 

 The stones and metals polished by art are not comparable to this gem 

 of nature. She has placed it in the order of birds, but among the tiniest 

 of the race — maxime miranda in minimus ; she has loaded it with all the 

 gifts of which she has only given other birds a share. Agility, rapidity, 

 nimbleness, grace, and rich attire all belong to this little favorite. The 

 emerald, the ruby, and the topaz glitter in its garb, which is never 

 soiled with the dust of earth, for, leading an aerial life, it rarely touches 

 the turf even for an instant. Always in the air, flying from flower to 

 flower, it shares their freshness and their splendor, lives on tlreir nectar, 

 and only inhabits those climates in which they are unceasingly re- 

 newed." Audubon calls the Humming Bird a " glittering fragment of 

 the rainbow," and asks : "Who, on seeing this lovely little creature niov- 



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