INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



can do, and those who resort to it for a redress of their grievances 

 generally leave off worse than they begun, even if they come off 

 conquerors. Beings that have reason and the plain command of 

 God to guide them know this, and have no excuse for resorting 

 to violence; but birds and other unreasoning animals do not know 

 better, and therefore must be held excused, if, as is often the 

 case, they fight and destroy each other. 



Fierce is at times the combat between two of the birds which 

 we are describing, dressed in their splendid coats of mail, which 

 seem to emit flashes of various-coloured fire at every movement: 

 each levels his pointed bill, and darts on his antagonist with 

 the swiftness of a barbed arrow; they meet, they separate, they 

 meet again, with shrill chirpings; they dart upward and down- 

 ward, and circle round each other, till the eye grows weary of 

 watching, and can no longer follow their rapid motions. At 

 length, the combat ends by one of them falling exhausted on the 

 ground, while the other rests, panting and trembling, on a leafy 

 spray above his fallen adversary, if he too does not fall to the 

 ground mortally wounded. During the breeding-season especially, 

 do they manifest this quarrelsome disposition, two males seldom 

 meeting on the same bush or flower without a battle ; and so 

 bold are they in defence of their young, that they attack indis- 

 criminately all birds, of whatever size, which approach their nests. 



Bullock says of that very diminutive species called the Mexican 

 Star, "They attack the eyes of the larger birds, and their sharp 

 needle-like bill is a truly formidable weapon in this kind of war- 

 fare." He also says that, "under the influence of jealousy, they 

 become perfect furies; their throats swell, their crests, tails, and 

 wings expand, they fight in the air, uttering a shrill noise, till 

 one falls exhausted to the ground." And according to the testi- 

 mony of an older writer, named Fernando Oviedo, "when they 

 see a man climb the tree where they have their nests, they fly 

 at his face, and strike him in the eyes; coming, going, and re- 

 turning with such swiftness, that no man would rightly believe 

 it that hath not seen it." 



Perhaps no better short description of this bird is to be found 

 than that given by Dampier, an English navigator of the seven- 

 teenth century, who, we believe, first made it known to Europe. 

 His account of this, the most delicate and lovely of the feathered 

 tribe, is as fresh and beautiful as when the young seaman, charmed 

 with its loveliness, first entered a description of it in his rude 

 journal: — "The Humming Bird is a pretty little feathered creature, 

 no bigger than a great overgrown wasp; with a black bill, no 

 bigger than a small needle, and with legs and feet in proportion 

 to its body. This creature does not wave its wings like other 



