2 



SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



during the summer months in Hudson's Bay 

 and Canada. Captain Cook brought many 

 fine specimens from Nootka Sound, and I 

 now add several new species from the tem- 

 perate Table-land of Mexico, and the woods 

 in the vicinity of the snow mountains of 

 Orizaba, Pepocatapetl, &c. 



There is not, it may safely be asserted, in 

 all the zoological productions of the varied 

 works of nature, any family that can bear a 

 comparison, for singularity of form, splendour 

 of colour, or number and variety of species, 

 with this the smallest of the feathered cre- 

 ation. In my former collection, the variety 

 of different species amounted to nearly a 

 hundred, and every day brings me acquainted 

 with more. In Jamaica I procured the 

 smallest species known, which is considerably 

 less than some of the bees ; — and in Mexico I 

 found many new species, whose splendid co- 

 lours glow with a brilliancy and lustre not 



