HUMMING-BIRD. 289 



A Var. 



B Var. 



C Gilt-throated 

 S4 Amethystine 

 85 Blue-headed 



SG Gilt-tailed 

 87 Curve-billed 

 SS Blue-necked 



89 Yellow-throated 



90 Least 



91 Banded 



92 Scalloped 



93 White-templed 



94 White-collared 



95 White-vented 



XN this Genus the bill is slender and weak, incurvated in some, in 

 others straight. Nostrils minute. 



Tongue very long, formed of two conjoined cylindrical tubes — 

 missile. 



Toes placed three forwards, and one backwards. 



Tail consisting of ten feathers. Legs weak. 



The following are divided into two families, the one with curved, 

 the other with straight bills ; which separation appears to be far better 

 than making two Genera, as some authors have done ; especially as 

 they have precisely the same organs, and mode of providing them- 

 selves with food, as well as general manners. The use of the bill, 

 in most birds, is to collect the food ; but in the Humming-Bird it 

 seems to serve rarely for any other purpose than as a case of defence 

 for the tongue, as it is by means of the latter that the bird obtains 

 nourishment ; the honey, on which it feeds, being in a liquid state, 

 and which it readily draws up from the flowers by this organ, as 

 easily as a common fly, by its trunk ; or, what is more similar, the 

 tongue or trunk of a hawk moth ; for this, too, is composed of a 

 double tube, and is bifid at the end. The difference is merely, that 

 in the Humming-Bird the tongue is elongated, or contracted in a 

 strait direction, defended by the bill ; in the hawk moth coiled up 

 in a spiral manner, like the hair spring of a watch, and in this 

 situation guarded by a lateral valve on each side. We wish not to 

 enter into further particulars here, as such disquisitions, if carried to 

 a proper length, would be more fit for an anatomical, than any 

 other, description of the subject in question. 



VOL. IV. p p 



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