XXIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



and fear, passing and repassing within a few inches of your face, 

 alighting on a twig not more than a yard from your hody, waiting 

 the result of your unwelcome visit in a state of the utmost des- 

 pair — you could not fail to be impressed with the deepest pangs 

 which paternal alFection feels on the unexpected death of a cher- 

 ished child. Then how pleasing it is, on your leaving the spot, 

 to see the returning hope of the parents, when, after examining 

 the nest, they find their nurslings untouched! You might then 

 judge how pleasing it is to a mother of another kind to hear the 

 physician, who has attended her sick child, assure her that the 

 crisis is over, and that her babe is saved. These are the scenes 

 best fitted to enable us to partake of sorrow and joy, and to 

 determine every one who views them to make it his study to 

 contribute to the happiness of others, and to refrain from wan- 

 tonly or maliciously giving them pain." 



VOICE. 



Does the Humming Bird sing? Some naturalists have contended 

 that he does. But we fancy this is a mistake; a shrill piping 

 sound, quickly uttered, appears to be ail his stock of musical 

 notes; this may be slightly varied so as to express love, anger, or 

 fear, if the little Turk ever knows what fear is. Waterton shews 

 how the error of supposing it to be a songster might have arisen: 

 "I tried hard for some years to find out if Humming Birds 

 ever sang. At last I had an opportunity. I was sitting under 

 an orange tree, and I heard a Humming Bird singing within four 

 yards of me. I fancied that I could see its bill move as it 

 warbled. I had not the smallest doubt of the fact. Upon moving 

 a little aside, I saw, just behind the Humming Bird, a small kind 

 of Sylvia producing the notes, which, till then, I was quite sure 

 that the Humming Bird had produced. A leaf or two intervening 

 betwixt the Humming Bird and the real songster, had led me into 

 error; whilst my imagination, far too vivid for the occasion, had 

 innocently helped me on to the delusion." 



Wilson says of the Northern Humming Bird, that its only note 

 is a single chirp, not louder than that of a grasshopper. 



Lesson likens the cry to the syllables tere-tere, frequently uttered, 

 and with more or less force according to the excitement of the 

 bird. Most frequently, he says, they are completely dumb ; and, 

 he adds, he has passed whole hours in the forests of Brazil without 

 having heard the slighest sound proceeding from their throats. 

 Still it seems likely that in a family whose species are so nu- 

 merous, there may be some which have a kind of song, although 

 faint and broken. This appear to be the ease with the Trochilus 



