THE HUMMING-BIRD. 
267 
field, “ that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these.” 
“ Never was I more excited to wonder than by one of 
these little creatures,” says a traveller, # “ so much more 
resembling a splendid shining insect than a bird. It was on 
a fine day, at the commencement of an American summer, 
on the hanks of Lake Huron, that I first beheld them. 
Beautiful birds were drinking and splashing themselves in 
the water; and gaudy butterflies, of a very large size, were 
fanning the air with their yellow and black wings. At this 
moment a little blazing meteor shot, like a glowing coal of 
fire, across the glen; and I saw for the first time, with admi- 
ration and astonishment, what in a moment I recognised, 
that resplendent living gem, the Humming-bird! buzzing 
like a humble-bee, which it exactly resembled in its flight 
and sound : like it, it sprang through the air by a series of 
simultaneous impulses, tracing angle after angle with the 
1 velocity of lightning; till, poised above its favourite flower, 
all motion seemed lost in its very intensity, and the humming 
sound alone certified to the ear the rapid vibration of its 
wing, by which it supported its little airy form.” 
They vary from the size of a humble-bee to that of a 
Willow- Wren ; the nests of the smaller sort appearing more 
like mossy knots on a branch, than the manufacture of a 
bird, not exceeding an inch in diameter, and formed of the 
most delicate materials. They will build fearlessly within 
sight of a window, where they may be leisurely observed. 
They frequently assemble in great numbers round some sorts 
of flowers, yielding those sweet juices which, together with 
insects, compose then food. The aloe is one of them. A 
gentleman in Jamaica thus describes them hovering round a 
plot of these plants covering nearly twenty square yards, of 
which about a dozen were in full bloom. “ The spikes, 
bearing bunches of flowers, were from twelve to fifteen feet 
high; on each spike were many hundred blossoms, of a 
bright yellow colour, each of a tubular shape, and containing 
its drop of honey. These alone afforded,” as he says, “ a 
* Captain Head’s Forest Scenes . 
