V, 



26 



HUMMING-BIRD. 

 TBOCHILUS COLUBHIS, 

 [Plate X. — Figs. 3 and 4.] 



Trochilus coluhris^ Linn. Syst. I, p. 191, Ab. 12. — VOiseau mouche a gorge rouge de la Ca- 

 roline, Briss. Orn. Ill, p. 716, No. 13, LS6,Jig. 6. — Buff. Ow. VI, j&. 13. — 

 Humming-bird, Catesb. Car. I, 65. — Red-throated Humming-bird, Edw. I, 38, male and 

 female. — Lath. Syn. II, 769, No. 35. — Peale's Museum, No. 2520. 



NATURE in every department of her works seems to delight 

 in variety; and the present subject of our history is almost as sin- 

 gular for its minuteness, beauty, want of song and manner of feed- 

 ing, as the preceding is for unrivalled excellence of notes, and plain- 

 ness of plumage. Tho this interesting and beautiful genus of birds 

 comprehends upwards of seventy species, all of which, with a very 

 few exceptions, are natives of America and its adjacent islands, it 

 is yet singular, that the species now before us should be the only 

 one of its tribe that ever visits the territory of the United States. 



According to the observations of my friend Mr. Abbot, of Sa- 

 vannah, in Georgia, who has been engaged these thirty years in 

 collecting and drawing subjects of natural history in that part of 

 the country, the Humming-bird makes its first appearance there, 

 from the south, about the twenty-third of March ; two weeks ear- 

 lier than it does in the county of Burke, sixty miles higher up the 

 country towards the interior; and at least five weeks sooner than 

 it reaches this part of Pennsylvania. As it passes on to the north- 

 ward as far as the interior of Canada, where it is seen in great num- 

 bers,^ the wonder is excited how so feebly constructed and delicate 



* Mr. M'Kenzie speaks of seeing a beautiful Humming-bird" near the head of the 

 Unjigah or Peace river, in lat. 54°; but has not particularized the species. 



