94 
HUMMING-BIRD HAWK-MOTH. 
eyes, the rapidity and sharpness of their motions, all connect them 
with the Insect World. And an insect there is so exactly resem- 
bling the humming-bird, that the Amazonian Indians may almost be 
pardoned for their belief that "the one is transmutable into the other." 
We refer to the humming-bird hawk-moth, which is perhaps a little 
smaller than the average humming-bird, but exactly resembles him in 
its mode of flight, and in its habit of poising itself in the air, and 
in its partiality for the nectar-cups of flowers. The likeness, in other 
respects, is very curious ; and it is some time before the traveller 
learns to distinguish one from the other when on the wing. Even 
when both are examined in the hand, the resemblance is very notice- 
able. If they are held sideways, the shape of the head and position 
of the eyes are found to be nearly the same in both, — the extended 
proboscis of the insect representing the long beak of the bird. The 
brush of long hair-scales, like feathers, at the tip of the moth's body, 
answers, when expanded, to the bird's tail. Such points of resem- 
blance are, of course, entirely superficial ; yet between the two 
creatures a certain analogy — originating probably, as Bates suggests, 
in similarity of habits — can easily be traced. 
The Amazonian region cannot boast of any great variety of 
humming-birds, but some of the species are eminently beautiful. The}' 
form two well-marked groups, difl"ering considerably in form and 
habits. The forest species, Phcethornince, which, living in the forest 
shade, where flowers are scarce, live chiefly upon insects, which they 
pursue from leaf to leaf ; and the Trochilince, which prefer the sunny, 
open places, but enter the forest wherever a tree is in blossom, and are 
also found in the blossomy forest dells. The individuals of the former 
group seem to be the more numerous in the Brazilian forests. They 
build their long purse-shaped nests, which are made of lichens and fine 
vegetable fibres, closely interwoven, and lined with silk-cotton from the 
fruit of the samaiima-tree (Eriodendron), on the inner sides of the tips of 
palm-fronds. 
MORE ABOUT THE HUMMIXG-BIRDS. 
We have been struck by a passage in Mr. Gosse's pleasant book, 
"The Naturalist in Jamaica;" for it seems to sketch a condition of 
