South American Indians. If the country glanced at in the foregoing remarks provided the naturalists
o f the days o f Linnaeus with ample materials for study and investigation, how much greater would have been
their amazement and delight had exploration made them acquainted with the hidden treasures of the great
Andean ranges, which stretch along the entire country, from the Rocky Mountains on the north to near
Cape Horn on the south. Along the whole line o f this great backbone, as it were, o f America, at remarkably
short intervals, occur species of this family o f birds o f the greatest beauty and interest, which are not
only specifically but generically distinct from each other. Whole groups of them, remarkable for their
singularity, have become known to us from the inquiries and explorations of later travellers ; and, abundant
as the species may be towards the northern and southern portions o f the great chain o f mountains, they
vastly increase as we approach the equator. These equatorial regions teem with species, and even genera,
which are not found elsewhere. Between the snow-line o f the summits o f the towering volcanosjind their
bases, many zones o f temperature occur, each o f which has its own especial animal and vegetable life. The
alpine region has its particular flora, accompanied by insects especially adapted to such situations; and
attendant upon these are peculiar forms o f Humming-Birds, which never descend to the hot valleys, and
scarcely even to the cooler and more temperate paramos. Many o f the highest cones o f extinct and of
existing volcanos have their own faunas and floras; even in the interior walls o f ancient craters, wherever
vegetation has gained a footing, some species o f Humming-Birds have there, and there only, been as yet
discovered. It is the exploration o f such situations that has led to the acquisition o f so many additional
species o f this family o f birds, which now .reach to more than 4 0 0 in number.
It might be thought by some persons that 400 species o f birds so diminutive in size, and o f one family,
could scarcely be distinguished from each other; but any one who studies the subject will soon perceive
that such is not the case. Even the females, which assimilate more closely to each other than the males,
can be separated with perfect certainty; nay, even a tail-feather will be sufficient for a person well-versed
in the subject to say to what genus and species the bird from which it has been taken belongs. I mention
this fact to show that what we designate a species has really distinctive and constant characters; and in the
whole o f my experience, with many thousands o f Humming-Birds passing through my hands, I have never
observed an instance o f any variation which would lead me to suppose that it was the result o f a union of
two species. I write this without bias, one way or the other, as to the question o f the origin o f species.
I am desirous o f representing nature in her wonderful ways as she presents herself to my attention at the
close o f my work, after a period o f twelve years o f incessant labour, and not less than twenty years of
interesting study. I am, o f course, here speaking of the special object o f my own studies— the Humming-
Birds.
It is somewhat remarkable that any persons living in the present enlightened age should persist in asserting
that Humming-Birds are found in India and Africa. Yet there are many who believe that such is the case.
Even in a work but recently published, it is stated that Humming-Birds and Toucans are both found in the
last-mentioned country; and I was once brought into a rather stormy altercation with a gentleman who
asserted that the Humming-Bird was found in England, and that he had seen it fly in Devonshire. Now
the object seen in Devonshire was the insect called the Humming-Bird Moth, Macroglossa stellarum ; and
the birds supposed to belong to this family by residents and travellers in India and Africa are o f a
totally different group—the Nectariniidce or Sun-Birds. These latter birds have no relationship to the
T ro ch ilid a ; they are not even representatives o f them in the countries alluded t o ; and their only points of
resemblance consist in their diminutive size and the showy character of their plumage. Let it be understood,
then, once for all, that the Humming-Birds are confined to America and its islands (that is, the West Indies
in the Atlantic, aud Chiloe and Juan Fernandez in the Pacific; none have as yet been found in the Galapagos).
The Selasphorus rufus goes as far north as Sitka. Kotzebue informs us that it is found in summer as high
as the sixty-first parallel on the Pacific coast; while, on the antarctic end o f the continent, Captain King
observed the Eustephanus galeritus flitting about among the Fuchsias of Tierra del Fuego in a snow-storm.
Both these species, however, are migrants,—the northern bird retiring, as autumn approaches, to the
more temperate climate of Mexico, while the other wends its way up to the warmer regions of Bolivia and
Peru. The migration of these birds is, o f course, performed at directly opposite periods. Both the
Selasphorus rufus and the Trochilus Colubris spend the summer in high northern latitudes ; but the former
always proceeds along the western, and the latter along the eastern parts of the country: the T . Colubris
even extends its range as far as the fifty-seventh parallel, where it was observed by Sir John Richardson.
Although these and some other species pass over vast extents of country, I do not believe that they are
capable of long-continued flights : that is, I question their power o f crossing seas, or more than from one
island to another; for although we know that the two birds above-mentioned pass over many degrees of
latitude in their migrations, I believe that these journeys are performed in a series of comparatively short
stages, and always by land, and that the whole of their movements are more or less influenced by the
progress of the sun north or south as the case may be.
North America, then, may be said to have two Humming-Birds—a western and an eastern species. It
is true that Audubon has mentioned two others in his great work (the Lampornis Mango and Calypte A n n a ),
and states that the former was found at Key West in East Florida. Since then, however, I believe no
other example has been discovered there; and one can scarcely understand the occurrence o f the bird in
that part o f America, since it is a native of countries and islands lying so much further south.
Leaving North America, and proceeding south, we begin to meet with several other species, which
rarely extend their range to the north—viz. the Calypte Annas, C. Costa, Selasphorus platycercus, Trochilus
Alexandri, and Calothorax Calliope. These birds are also migratory, but their range is much less extensive
than that o f the two species previously mentioned. As we advance in this direction, Humming-Birds
become extremely numerous, and, as regards both genera and species, continue to increase in the more
southern country o f Guatemala, where every variety of climate is to be found. The forest-clad mountains
of Vera Paz appear to afford a winter retreat to many o f the northern species, as the regions contiguous
to the Atlas-range in Africa do to the numerous little warblers of this country and the continent
o f Europe. Besides these migrants, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica have species which are either
stationary, or merely change their quarters in accordance with the flowering-season of the trees on which
they seek their food, moving east and west or vice versa according to circumstances. The countries further
south, or those lying between Guatemala and Panama, appear to have a hird-fauna almost peculiar to themselves
; for it is seldom that the species inhabiting Costa Rica and Veragua extend their range to the
northward, neither are they often found in the more southern country o f New Granada.
It is in the last-mentioned country, New Granada, that some o f the finest of the Trochilidas are found,—
its towering mountains having species peculiar to themselves, while its extensive paramos are tenanted by
forms not found elsewhere. On the principal ranges o f the Andes, species exist which do not occur on the