126 



THE HUMMTNG-BIRD. 



birds; but, I imagine that he must have been 

 wrongly informed, as the humming-birds, of which 

 he writes, (and he had his information from an 

 eye-witness) were only young birds, a few weeks 

 out of the nest. Now, we all know, that this age, 

 both in man and in birds, is too immature for the 

 production of song. 



I am not a believer in humming-bird-melody 

 If it do exist, it must come from a species hitherto 

 unknown ; and with a guttural formation quite 

 different from that which obtains in the species 

 already examined. These guttural parts are alike 

 in the whole known family : — and thus, if one bird 

 can sing, they all ought to sing. 



I can state positively, from long experience, 

 that humming-birds are not gregarious in the usual 

 acceptation of the word. Their incubation is 

 always solitary ; and although many dozens of 

 them, may be seen feeding, at the scarlet flowers, 

 for example, on the tree which the French call 

 " Bois Immortel," those birds will have been seen 

 to arrive, one by one at the flowers, and to have 

 retired from them, one by one, when the repast 

 was over. 



Neither the monkey nor the humming-bird, on 

 account of the formation of the feet in this, and of 

 the hands in that, can labour on the ground for 



