HUMMING-BIRDS. 
97 
nearly confined to the tropical portions of the New 
World, and, according to our best information, that 
great archipelago of islands between Florida and the 
mouths of the Orinoco, with the mainland of the 
southern continent, until it passes the Tropic of Capri- 
corn, literally swarms with them.* In the wild and 
uncultivated parts, they inhabit those forests of mag- 
nificent timber overhung with lianas and the superb 
tribe of bignonacese, the huge trunks clothed with a 
rich drapery of parasites, whose blossoms only give 
way in beauty to the sparkling tints of their airy 
tenants ; but since the cultivation of various parts of 
the country, they abound in the gardens, and seem to 
delight in society, becoming familiar and destitute of 
fear, hovering over one side of a shrub, while the fruit 
or flowers is plucked from that opposite. As we recede 
from the tropics, on either side, the numbers decrease, 
though some species are found in Mexico, and other* 
in Peru, which do not appear to exist elsewhere. 
Thus Mr Bullock discovered several species at a high 
elevation, and consequently low temperature, on the 
lofty table lands of Mexico, and in the woods in the 
vicinity of the snowy mountains of Orizabo ; while 
Captain King, in the late survey of the southern 
coasts, met with numerous members of this diminu- 
tive family flying about in a snow-storm near the 
Straits of Magellan, and discovered two species, which 
he considered undescribed, in the remote island of 
* It is remarked by Lesson, that the colibris, or those special 
with curved bills* never pass the intcrtropical limits. 
