HUMMING-BIRDS. 



125 



the most remarkable of all tlie families of birds. It 

 may, however, very reasonably be asked, whether the 

 four hundred species of humming-birds above alluded to 

 are really all distinct — as distinct on the average as 

 the ten thousand species of birds are from each other. 

 We reply that they certainly are perfectly distinct 

 species which never intermingle ; and their differences do 

 not consist in colour only, but in peculiarities of form, of 

 structure, and of habits ; so that they have to be classed 

 in more than a hundred distinct genera or systematic 

 groups of species, these genera being really as unlike 

 each other as stonechats and nightingales, or as par- 

 tridges and blackcocks. The figures we have quoted, 

 as showing the proportion of birds in general to hum- 

 ming-birds, thus represent real facts ; and they teach 

 us that these small and in some respects insignificant 

 birds, constitute an important item in the animal life of 

 the globe. 



Humming-birds are, in many respects, unusually inter- 

 esting and instructive. They are highly peculiar in 

 form, in structure, and in habits, and are quite unrivalled 

 as regards variety and beauty. Though the name is 

 familiar to every one, few but naturalists are acquainted 

 with the many curious facts in their history, or know 

 how much material they afibrd for admiration and study. 

 It is proposed, therefore, to give a brief and popular 

 account of the form, structure, habits, distribution, and 

 afiinities, of this remarkable family of birds, as illustra- 

 tive of the teeming luxuriance of tropical nature, and 

 as throwing light on some of the most interesting 

 problems of natural history. 



Structure, — The humming-birds form one compact 



