126 



THE HUMMING-BIRD. 



of the humming-bird, and I have read Mr. Ovid's 

 account of the growth of Captain Cadmus's masons, 

 and both very attentively. I think the veracity of 

 the one is as apparent as the veracity of the other. 

 What, in the name of skin and feathers, I ask, has 

 Mr. Audubon found in the economy of the ruby- 

 throated humming-bird to enable him to inform 

 Englishmen that its young can fly in so short a space 

 of time ? The young of no other bird that we are 

 acquainted with, from the condor to the wren, can 

 lly when only a week old. 



The humming-bird, in every part of its body and 

 plumage, is quite as perfect as the eagle itself ; 

 neither is it known to differ in the duration of its 

 life from any of the smaller birds of the forest 

 which it inhabits. Like them it bursts the shell 

 in a state of nudity ; like them, it is blind for some 

 days ; and, like them, it has to undergo the gradual 

 process of fledging, which is so slow in its operation, 

 that I aflirm, without fear of refutation, it cannot 

 possibly produce, in the space of one short week, a 

 series of feathers capable of supporting the bird 

 through the air. 



Again, the precocious flying of the young bii-ds 

 argues precocity of feathers ; and this would authorise 

 us to look for precocity of lustre in the male. But 

 Mr. Audubon informs us that the male does not re- 

 ceive its full brilliancy of colour until the succeeding 

 spring ; and I myself can afl^irm, from actual observ- 

 ation, that the additional plumage which adorns 

 some humming-birds does not make its appearance 

 till towards the middle of the second year. 



