TROCHILUS, the HUMMING-BIRD, a genus belonging to the order of picæ. There are 60 species; all of them remarkable for the beauty of their colours, and most of them for the smallness of their size, though some are eight or nine inches in length.—They are divided into two families, viz. those with crooked bills, and those with straight bills. Of these we shall describe the three following species, from Mr Latham's Synopsis of birds.
1. The little humming-bird has a crooked bill, is an inch and an half in length; frequently weighing less 50 grains. The bill is black, and half an inch in length: the body greenish-brown, with a red, shining, inimitable gloss: the head is crested with a small tuft, green at bottom, but of a sparkling gold colour at top: quills and tail fine black. It is a native of Guiana; and the velocity of it in flying is so great, that the eye can scarce keep pace with its motion.
2. The moichitus, or ruby-necked humming-bird, according to Maregrave is the most beautiful of the whole genus. Its length is three inches four lines; the bill straight, eight lines long, and blackish: the top of the head and hind part of the neck are as bright as a ruby, and of the same colour: the upper parts of the body are brown, with a faint mixture of green gold: the throat and fore part of the neck are the colour of the most brilliant topaz: the belly, sides, and thighs, are brown; but on the lower part of the belly, on each side, is a spot of white: the tail is rufous purple, inclining to violet at the ends; the two middle feathers are shortest: the legs and claws blackish. The female has only a dash of golden or topaz on the breast and fore part of the neck; the rest of the under parts are greyish white. This species is found in Brasil, Curassao, Guiana, and Surinam.
3. The minimus, or least humming-bird, is exceeded, both in weight and dimensions, by several species of bees. The total length is one inch and a quarter; and when killed, weighs no more, according to Sir Hans Sloane, than 20 grains. The bill is straight and black, three lines and a half in length: the upper parts of the head and body are of a greenish gilded brown, in some lights appearing reddish: the under parts are greyish white; the wings are violet-brown; the tail of a bluish black, with a gloss of polished metal; but the outer feather, except one on each side, is grey from the middle to the tip, and the outer one wholly grey; legs and claws brown. The female is less than the male: the whole upper side of a dirty brown, with a slight
Trochilus. flight globs of green; the under parts of a dirty white. These birds are found in various parts of South America and the adjacent islands.—Our author received it from Jamaica.
These birds subsist on the nectar or sweet juice of flowers: they frequent those most which have a long tube: particularly the impatiens noli me tangere, the monarda with crimson flowers, and those of the convolvulus tribe. They never settle on the flower during the action of extracting the juice, but flutter continually, like bees, moving their wings very quick, and making a humming noise; whence their name. They are not very shy, suffering people to come within a foot or two of the place where they are, but on approaching nearer fly off like an arrow out of a bow. They often meet and fight for the right to a flower, and this all on the wing: in this state they often come into rooms where the windows stand open, fight a little, and go out again. When they come to a flower which is juiceless, or on the point of withering, they pluck it off as it were in anger, by which means the ground is often quite covered with them. When they fly against each other, they have, besides the humming, a sort of chirping noise like a sparrow or chicken. They do not feed on insects nor fruit; nor can they be kept long in cages, though they have been preserved alive for several weeks together by feeding them with water in which sugar had been dissolved.
This bird most frequently builds in the middle of a branch of a tree, and the nest is so small that it cannot be seen by a person who stands on the ground; any one, therefore, desirous of seeing it, must get up to the branch, that he may view it from above: it is for this reason that the nests are not more frequently found. The nest is in course very small, and quite round: the outside, for the most part, is composed of green moss, common on old pales and trees; the inside of soft down, mostly collected from the leaves of the great mullein, or the silk-grass; but sometimes they vary the texture, making use of flax, hemp, hairs, and other soft materials: they lay two eggs of the size of a pea, which are white, and not bigger at one end than the other.
The above account of the manners will in general suit all the birds of this genus; for as their tongues are made for suction, it is by this method alone that they can gain nourishment: no wonder, therefore, they can scarcely be kept alive by human artifice. Captain Davies, however, informed our author, that he kept these birds alive for four months by the following method:—He made an exact imitation of some of the tubular flowers with paper, fastened round a tobacco-pipe, and painted them of a proper colour; these were placed in the order of nature, in the cage wherein these little creatures were confined; the bottoms of the tubes were filled with a mixture of brown sugar and water as often as emptied; and he had the pleasure of seeing them perform every action; for they soon grew familiar, and took the nourishment in the same manner as when ranging at large, though close under his eye.