96 
HUMMING-BIRDS. 
bo much extolled by Cortes were embroidered with 
their skins ; — the Indian could appreciate their love- 
liness, delighting to adorn his bride with gems 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 lustres 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 
l’astre du jour ” of the imaginative Buffon, fall short 
of their versatile tints.* Let us enquire, however, 
whether an exterior of “ gorgeous plumery ” is all 
which they possess, and if there is no beautiful adap- 
tation of structure to supply the wants of so frail a 
tenement. 
The humming-birds, or what are known by the 
genus Trochilus of Linnaeus, have lately received vast 
additions to the number of their species, and, though 
forming a large and closely connected group, they 
exhibit a great variety of forms and characters, which 
are not easily comprehended in the old twofold divi- 
sion, “ into those with straight, and those with curved 
bills.” They have been, accordingly, divided by 
modem ornithologists into various sections and genera, 
which will be detailed in that part of our work devoted 
to their classical arrangement. 
We previously mentioned that these birds were 
* Their name in the Indian language is Beams or Locks of 
the Sun. 
