72 
THE IIUMMING-BIRD. 
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 fan- 
ning the air with their yellow and black wings. At 
this moment a little blazing meteor shot like a glow- 
ing coal of fire across the glen ; and I saw for the 
first time, with admiration 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 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 fre- 
quently assemble in great numbers round some sorts 
of flowers, yielding those sweet juices, which, together 
with insects, compose their 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, hearing bunches of 
flowers, were from twelve to fifteen feet high ; on each 
spike were many hundred blossoms of a bright yellow 
