viii 



INTRODUCTION. 



the little winged gems so full of grace and vivacity, that one can 

 scarcely deem them to be other than the living creatures themselves. 

 There they are, sporting amid the blossoming plants in which they 

 most delight, feeding their young in the compact little nests, slung, 

 for the most part, at the ends of slender pendant boughs, or 

 broad leaves, and evidently swinging to and fro with every stir 

 of the light wind, or motion of the birds. There they are, engaged 

 in their desperate combats, with their splendid throats inflated, 

 and wings and tails spread out to the fullest extent, darting 

 hither and thither; now out in the open sunshine, now beneath 

 the shade of the profuse and marvellous vegetation of the Tropical 

 world. But let the poet describe them — 



"Still sparkles here the glory of the west, 

 Shews his crowned head, and bares his jewelled breast; 

 In whose bright plumes the richest colours live, 

 Whose dazzling hues no mimic art can give: 

 The purple amethyst, the emerald's green, 

 Contrasted mingle with the ruby's sheen; 

 While over all a tissue is put on, 

 Of golden gauze, by fairy fingers spun." 



HUMMING- BIRDS. 



These birds form a distinct group or family of the great class 

 Aves. Naturalists call them Trochilidce ; the Latin for a Hum- 

 ming Bird being Trochilus. They are also termed Tenuirostral, 

 that is slender-billed birds, from the Latin tenuis, thin, small; and 

 rostrum, a projection or beak. A glance at the species figured in 

 this book will at once shew how appropriate is this name, the 

 bills of all being fine and slender, some of them extremely so. 

 These bills, which in some instances are straight, and in others 

 curved up or clown, have been used by some naturalists as marks 

 of division between distinct genera, but this arrangement is not 

 generally followed, the peculiar form being rather considered as 

 characteristic of a species, and therefore called specific. In some 

 kinds the bill is armed, both on the upper and lower portions, 

 with small teeth, sloping backwards, but these never extend to 

 the extreme end, which has always a sharp point, sometimes curved 

 down like a hook. The upper mandible of the bill fmandibula is 

 the Latin for jaw) is in most species sufficiently large to overlap, 

 and partly sheath the lower; but notwithstanding this difference 

 in shape, the bills of all Humming Birds appear to be similar in 

 their texture, and the nature of their cutting edges; therefore we 

 may conclude that the nature of the food is nearly the same in 

 all, the variations of form being merely such as are required to 

 obtain it from differently-placed or shaped receptacles. In the cut 



