TROCHILIDjE. 323 



[112.] 1. Trochilus colubris. (Linn.) Northern Humming-bird. 



Genus, Trochilus, Linn. 



Trochilus colubris. Idem. 



Red-throated Humming-bird. Edwards, i., pi. 38. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., 176. 



Red-throated Humming-bird. Lath. Syn., ii., p. 769. Idem, Gen. Hist, iv., p. 344 (omitting varieties). 



Trochilus colubris. Idem. Ind., i., p. 312. 



Le Rubis. Vieil. Ois. de V Am,., i., pi. 31 and 32. 



Humming-bird {Trochilus colubris). Wils., ii., p. 26, pi. 10, f. 3 and 4. 



Trochilus colubris. Bonap. Syn., No. 155. 



The migration of birds has in all ages been a matter of pleasing speculation 

 to the natural philosopher ; but in no instance does it appear more wonderful 

 than when we contemplate it as forming part of the economy of the Humming- 

 birds. The vast extent of space traversed by some of the winged tribes in 

 their way from their winter retreats to their breeding-places gives us great 

 ideas of their unwearied strength of wing and rapidity of flight ; but how is 

 our admiration of the ways of Providence increased, when we find that one of 

 the least of its class, clothed in the most delicate and brilliant plumage, and 

 apparently more fitted to flutter about in a conservatory than to brave the fury 

 of the blast, should yield to few birds in the extent of its migrations! The 

 Northern Humming-bird, which winters to the southward of the United States, 

 ranges, in summer, to the fifty-seventh parallel, and perhaps even still farther 

 north*. We obtained specimens on the plains of the Saskatchewan, and Mr. 

 Drummond found one of its nests near the sources of the Elk River. This 

 nest is composed principally of the down of an anemone, bound together with a 

 few stalks of moss and bits of lichen, and has an internal diameter of one inch. 

 The eggs, two in number, of a reddish-white colour and obtuse at both ends, are 

 half an inch long and four lines and a quarter in transverse diameter. — R. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed on the plains of the Saskatchewan. 



Colour. — The whole of the upper plumage shining gilded green. Wings dusky black, 

 glossed with violet : lateral tail feathers the same, but considerably darker and glossed more 

 with purple, particularly beneath ; the two middle feathers entirely green, the next pair edged 

 with green. Under plumage : a black fillet passes from ear to ear and forms a line under the 



* Kotzebue informs us that the Trochilus rufus is found in summer as high as the sixty-first parallel on the Pacific 

 coast. The climate of the Pacific coast is considerably milder, however, than that of the country lying to the east- 

 ward of the Rocky Mountains.— R. 



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