HUMMING-BIRD. 
49 
blossoms of the tree in which I was. Quite regard - 
less of my presence, consciously secure in its power 
of wing, the lovely little gem hovered around the 
trunk, and threaded the branches, now probing here, 
now there, its cloudy wings on each side vibrating 
with a noise like that of a spinning-wheel, and its 
emerald breast for a moment flashing brilliantly in 
the sun’s ray ; then apparently black, all the light 
being absorbed ; then, as it slightly turned, becoming 
a dark olive ; then in an instant blazing forth again 
with emerald efiulgence. Several times it came close 
to me, as I sat motionless with delight, and holding 
my breath for fear of alarming it, and driving it 
away ; it seemed almost worth a voyage across the 
sea to behold so radiant a creature in all the wild- 
ness of its native freedom. 
As I now, several years afterwards, here in the 
suburbs of London, copy these notes for the press, 
the impressions then produced on my mind as one 
novelty after another presented itself, — things that 
I had read of with eager desire to see, that had 
become encircled with halos of romance in my 
imagination, — come gushing upon my memory in all 
their fulness and freshness, like some sweet tune, 
that one has not heard for years, unexpectedly played. 
But how shall I transfer these impressions to my 
readers ? I can name some of the prominent objects 
that helped to make up the picture, and by some 
short description, or a few well-selected epithets, 
may communicate a certain definiteness to those 
objects ; but the picture itself, the thousand things 
that cannot be enumerated, birds, insects, flowers, 
D 
