168 



SIR WM. JARDINE ON HUMMING BIRDS. 



the work, is excellent in its way ; we mean it is well and elegantly 

 written, and exhibits in a striking manner the characteristic enthusiasm 

 of Linnaeus, which is not apparent in the engraved portrait; but it is 

 not so much to our taste as Sir William's Life of Wilson, probably 

 because Wilson is a greater favourite with us than Linnaeus. We are 

 glad to perceive that the author has not followed certain pedantic 

 English writers, in changing Linnaeus into Linne ; but we do not 

 exactly see the propriety of the memoir being coupled with humming 

 birds, which Linnaeus did little to illustrate. M. Audebert ought in 

 justice to have had the preference. This consideration, however, is of 

 little weight, and we are exceedingly pleased both with the engraved 

 and with the written portrait of the distinguished Swede, which are 

 well worth six shillings, independently of the thirty -five coloured 

 plates. 



We shall now advert to the humming birds, and passing over two pa- 

 ragraphs about representation, as theoretical notions which we consider 

 fanciful, we come upon the following sketch, which we request the 

 reader to compare with what we have quoted above from BufFon, 

 expressly with this view, and we think he will agree with us in thinking 

 our author not inferior in eloquence, while he is certainly superior to 

 the Count in correct taste. 



"The beautiful and delicate beings," says Sir William, " to which we .must now 

 particularly direct the attention of our readers, appear to have excited the admiration 

 of their discoverers, and, indeed, of every one who has observed them, either revelling 

 in their native glades, or at rest in the mere artificial display of our museums, by the 

 spirited proportions of their form, and the dazzling splendour of their plumage, 



' Delicate and beautiful, 



Thick without burden, close as fishes' scales.' 



" The nation of the Aztecs call their capital Tzinzunzan, from the number of hum- 

 ming birds in its vicinity, with which the statues of their gods are adorned ; and the 

 Indians of Patzquara are still famous for this art. They compose figures of saints 

 with the feathersof the colibri, which are remarkable for the delicacy of the execution 

 and the brilliancy of the colours. 



" The ancient Mexicans used their feathers for superb mantles in the time of Mon- 

 tezuma, and the pictures so much extolled by Cortes were embroidered with their skins; 

 the Indian could appreciate their loveliness, delighting to adorn his bride with gerns 

 and jewellery plucked from the starry frontlets of these beauteous forms. Every 

 epithet which the ingenuity of language could invent has been employed to depict the 

 richness of their colouring ; the lustre of the topaz, of emeralds and rubies, have been 

 compared with them, and applied in their names. ' The hue of roses steeped in liquid 

 fire,' and even the ' cheveux de 1' astre du jour' of the imaginative BufFon, fall short 

 of their versatile tints. Let us inquire, however, whether an exterior of 'gorgeous 



