FAMILY XII. 
ANTHOMYZI \ Vieill. 
GENUS XX VI 1 1. — TRO CHIL US, Linnjlus. 
SUBGENUS, MELLISUGA, BRISSON. 
150. TROCHILUS COLUBRIS, LINN. AND WILS. — HUMMINGBIRD. 
WILSON, PLATE X. FIG. III. MALE. —FIG. IV. FEMALE. 
EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
Nature, in every department of her works, seems 
to delight in variety ; and the present subject of our 
history is almost as singular for its minuteness, beauty, 
want of song, and manner of feeding, as the preceding 
is for unrivalled excellence of notes, and plainness of 
plumage. Though this interesting and beautiful genus 
of birds comprehends upwards of seventy species, all of 
which, with a very few exceptions, are natives of 
America and its adjacent islands, it is yet singular, that 
the species now before us should be the only one of its 
tribe that ever visits the territory of the United States. 
According to the observations of my friend Mr Abbot, 
of Savannah, in Georgia, who has been engaged these 
thirty years in collecting and drawing subjects of natural 
history in that part of the country, the humming bird 
makes its first appearance there, from the south, about 
the 23d of March ; two weeks earlier than it does in 
the county of Burke, sixty miles higher up the country 
towards the interior; and at least five weeks sooner 
than it reaches this part of Pennsylvania. As it passes 
on to the northward as far as the interior of Canada, 
where it is seen in great numbers,* the wonder is 
* Mr M £ Kenzie speaks of seeing a <£ beautiful humming bird ” 
near the head of the Unjigah or Peace river, in lat. 54 deg. ; but 
has not particularized the species. 
