THE KINGFISHER. 
71 
fore, till another plunge denoted the capture of 
another fish ; and so on, till after haying captured 
four or five, it darted away, and was seen no more. 
Its nest is in great part composed of fish-hones, 
which it throws up in pellets similar to those cast 
up by Owls, of which we have already spoken. 
The Humming-birds are the last of this tribe we 
shall notice, lamenting that none but those who 
cross the seas, and can visit them in their native 
haunts, will ever he fortunate enough to behold the 
glorious robes with which nature can invest even the 
smallest of her works. Truly may it be said of 
these lovely birds, as of the lilies of the 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 *, 46 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 banks of Lake 
* Captain Head’s Forest Scenes . 
