176 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
given you the slip, you would have been rather 
puzzled to know what to do with him.” 
“ Of course I should have let him go,” said the 
boy magnanimously, “ after I’d had a good look at 
him ; but he might have stayed long enough for 
that, after all the trouble I had in catching him.” 
“ For which he was not in the least grateful,” con- 
tinued Miss Harson, “ as he would much prefer being 
let alone. But here is our Audubon, with so many 
different portraits of him, and all so true to the orig- 
inal, that you cannot fail to become thoroughly ac- 
quainted with him. He seems to be the connecting 
link between birds and insects, being the least of all 
feathered creatures.” 
The children exclaimed for "some time over the 
beauty of the pictures ; it seemed as if such gorgeous 
tints could never be found on any living thing; but 
their governess assured them that it was only while 
the bird was living that it wore this brilliant gloss, 
stuffed birds being always more or less faded. 
“ There are many different varieties of humming- 
birds,” she continued, “ and they are found both in 
North and South America and the West Indies ; but 
the specimen brought by Malcolm, and the only kind 
ever found in this region, is known as the ruby hum- 
ming-bird. (Front Fig. 5.) He is only three and a 
h#f inches long ; the whole back, upper part of the 
