TROCHILUS, Lin. Scc. Bill subulate. filiform, tubular at the tip, and longer than the head ; the upper mandible sheathing the lower ; the tongue filiform, having its two threads coalescing, and tubular.
The birds of this family are of very small dimensions, with a very few exceptions, inhabit the southern re gions of America. Their bill and feet are weak ; but the former is very long in proportion to the size of the body ; the nostrils are minute, and the tongue is capable of being thrust a great way out. They fly very rapidly, take their food on the wing, and suck the honied juice of flowers without discomposing them. As they are spread to the 35th degree of southern latitude, and occur in the neigh bourhood of the Plata, in situations which, during winter, are destitute both of groves and flowers, we may infer that they are capable of sustaining a considerable degree of cold, and of living on other food than nectar. Azara accordingly observed them visiting the webs of spiders. and, as he supposed, eating the spiders themselves ; and Father Isidore Guerra, a man worthy of credit, and who amused himself with rearing humming birds, has fully confirmed his conjecture. The strength of their rump and tail feathers enables them to turn in the air, and to stop short in the midst of their fleetest career, as if sus pended before a flower, flapping their wings with incon ceivable quickness, darting their tongue into the nectary, and holding their body in a vertical position, as if stuck fast by the bill. They roost on the branch of a tree during the night, and the hottest part of the day, and pass the rest of their time in fluttering from flower to flower When they are engaged in extracting the juices from the blossoms of a tree, one may approach pretty near them without driving them away. Their note, which is very seldom heard, except when they remove from one flower to ano ther, is expresed by taire, more or less shrilly, but feebly pronounced. Two of them are seldom seen together, or even on the same tree Notwithstanding their very di minutive size, they are bold and pugnacious, and make a louder humming noise by the motion of their wings than by their voice. Their fierce conflicts often terminate by
their sudden disappearance, without the spectator being able to ascertain which of the combatants has had the ad vantage They construct an elegant hemispherical nest of the down of a species of thapsus, and suspend it over branches of trees, where it is concealed by the leaves, the female laying two white eggs, of the size of peas, and which are hatched, in consequence of the alternate incu bation of the parents. The latter manifest unusual courage in driving intruders from their nest , and they sometimes assail and chase other birds without any apparent motive. They arc taken by firing at them with sand, aspersing them with water from a syphon, or entangling them in d' • Iicate nets, for the finest shot would blow them to pieces, and rods smeared with bird-lime would destroy their plu mage. The unrivalled brilliancy of their colours has been aptly compared to the richest metallic hues, or to the changeful reflcxions of gems ; and in sunshine they glow with peculiar splendour. It is not, however, to be ima gined, that all the species of humming birds are thus magnificently decorated; for some are even obscure in their attire, and, instead of the prevailing gaudiness of the family, exhibit only a faint appearance of a golden green tinge diffused over the brown or purplish shade of the back and wings Several people in South America have kept humming birds in their houses. Not many years ago, Don Pedro Melo, governor of Paraguay, had one full grown, which Iived with him for four months. and was allowed to range in the house. This little flutterer was perfectly attached to his master, whom he would kiss, and playfully impor tune for a little syrup, or a nosegay. Thus he lived, healthy and apparently happy, till, in the Don's absence, he perished front the negligence of the servants This numerous and interesting genus has been com modiously chit ided into two sections, the first including those with curved, and the second those with straight bills, corresponding to the colibris and oiseaux-mouches of the French ; yet the precise limits of the two divisions are not very easily assignable.