130 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



Indies. The Spaniards and Portuguese call them by 

 more poetical names, such as Flower-peckers, Flower- 

 kissers, Myrtle-suckers — while the Mexican and Peruvian 

 names show a still higher appreciation of their beauties, 

 their meaning being rays of the sun, tresses of the day- 

 star, and other such appellations. Even our modern 

 naturalists, while studying the structure and noting the 

 peculiarities of these living gems, have been so struck 

 by their inimitable beauties that they have endeavoured to 

 invent appropriate English names for the more beautiful 

 and remarkable genera. Hence we find in common use 

 such terms as Sun-gems, Sun-stars, Hill-stars, Wood-st2<rs, 

 Sun-angels, Star-throats, Comets, Coquettes, Flame- 

 bearers, Sylphs, and Fairies ; together with many others 

 derived from the character of the tail or the crests. 



The Motions and Habits of Humming -hirds. — Let us 

 now consider briefly, the peculiarities of flight, the motions, 

 the food, the nests, and general habits of the humming- 

 birds, quoting the descrijitions of those modern naturalists 

 who have personally observed them. Their appearance, 

 remarks Professor Alfred Newton, is entirely unlike that 

 of any other bird : — " One is admiring some brilliant and 

 beautiful flower, when between the blossom and one's 

 eye suddenly appears a small dark object, suspended as 

 it were between four short black threads meeting each 

 other in a cross. For an instant it shows in front of the 

 flower ; again another instant, and emitting a momentary 

 flash of emerald and sapphire light, it is vanishing, 

 lessening in the distance, as it shoots away, to a speck 

 that the eye cannot take note of." Audubon observes 

 that the Euby Humming-birds pass through the air in 

 long undulations, but the smallness of their size precludes 



