\j6 HUMMING BIRD. 



from his stomach through his mouth the hard kernels of 

 berries, such as smilax, grapes, &c, retaining the pulpy 

 part." * 



HUMMING BIKD.t (Trochilus colubris) 



PLATE X.— Figs. 3 and 4. 



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, Edit), i. 38, male and female. — Lath. Syn. ii. 769, No. 35. — Peale's 

 Museum, No. 2520. 



TROCHILUS COLUBRIS.— Linnjeus. 



Trochilus colubris, Bonap. Synop. p. 98. — The Ruby -throated Humming Bird, 

 Aud. pi. xlvii. Orn. Biog. i. 248. — Trochilus colubris, Northern Humming 

 Bird, North. Zool. ii. p. 323. 



Nature, in every department of her work, seems to delight in 

 variety ; and the present subject of our history is almost as 



* Letter from Mr Bartram to the author. 



t 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 severities of a hardier climate, are, with two exceptions, withdrawn 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 course. Mr Audubon is of 

 opinion, that they migrate during the night, passing through the air in 

 long undulations, raising themselves for some distance at an angle of 

 about 40°, and then falling in a curve ; but he adds, that the smallness 

 of their size precludes the possibility of following them farther than 

 fifty or sixty yards, even with a good glass. 



The humming birds, or what are generally known by the genus 

 Trochilus of Linnaeus, have been, through the researches of late 

 travellers and naturalists, vastly increased in their numbers ; they 

 form a_ large and closely-connected group, but show a considerable 



