HUMMING-BIRDS. 
95 
and ganga, or sand-grouse, beautifully formed for abode 
in these weary solitudes. They sweep them with a 
flight as rapid as the mighty hurricane, and receive as 
much enjoyment in a boundless waste, as the ruff- 
necked and pheasant-tailed grouse in the rich and 
luxuriant prairies of North America, or our native 
moorfowl on the heath-clad knolls of its Highland 
hills. In like manner do Africa and India, in their 
creepers and honeysuckers, present splendid types to 
a class of fairy birds nearly confined to the deep and 
shady forests of tropical America. 
The beautiful and delicate beings to which we must 
now particularly direct the attention of our readers, 
appear to have excited the admiration of their dis- 
coverers, and, indeed, of every one who has observed 
them, either reveling in their native glades, or at rest 
in the more artificial display of our museums, by the 
spirited proportions of their form, and the dazzling 
splendour of their plumage. 
M Delicate and beautiful, 
Thick ■without burden, close as fishes* scales.” 
The ancient Mexicans used their feathers for superb 
mantles in the time of Montezuma,* and the pictures 
* The nation of the Aztecs call their capital Tzinzunzan, from 
tho number of humming-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 feathers of the colibri, which are remarkable for the delicacy 
of the execution, and the brilliancy of the colours. — Ward's 
Mexico in 1827. 
