Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/372

360 360 H U N H U N they that they will frequently attack birds many times bigger than themselves, without, as would seem, any provocation. The food of Humming-birds consists mainly of insects, mostly gathered in the manner already described from the flowers they visit ; but, according to Mr Wallace, there are many species which he has never seen so occupied, and the &quot; Hermits &quot; especially seem to live almost entirely upon the insects which are found on the lower surface of leaves, over which they will closely pass their bill, balanc ing themselves the while vertically in the air. The same excellent observer also remarks that even among the common flower-frequent ing species he has found the alimentary canal entirely filled with insects, and very rarely a trace of honey. It is this fact doubtless that has hindered almost all attempts at keeping them in confine ment for any length of time nearly every one making the experi ment having fed his captives only with syrup, which is wholly in sufficient as sustenance, and seeing therefore the wretched creatures gradually sink into inanition and die of hunger. The beautiful nests of Humming-birds, than which the work of fairies could not be conceived more delicate, are to be seen in most museums, and will be found on examination to be very solidly and tenaciously built, though the materials are generally of the slightes-t cotton -wool or some vegetable down and spiders webs. They vary greatly in form and ornamentation for it would seem that the portions of lichen which frequently bestud them are affixed to their exterior with that object, though probably concealment was the W FIG. 2. Phaethornis eurynome, and nest. (After Gould.) original intention. They are mostly cup-shaped, and the singular fact is on record (Zoul. Journal, v. p. 1) that in one instance as the young grew in size the walls were heightened by the parents, until at last the nest was more than twice as big as when the eggs were laid and hatched. Some species, however, suspend their nests from the stem or tendril of a climbing plant, and more than one case has been known in which it has been attached to a hanging ropp. These pensile nests are said to have been found loaded on one side with a small stone or bits of earth to ensure their safe balance, though how the compensatory process is applied no one can say. Other species, and especially those belonging to the &quot;Hermit&quot; group, weave a frail structure round the side of a drooping palm-leaf. The eggs arc never more than two in number, quite white, and hav ing both ends nearly equal. The solicitude for her offspring dis played by the mother is not exceeded by that of any other birds, but it seems doubtful whether the male takes any interest in the brood. (A. N. ) HUNDRED, in England, is an ancient territorial division intermediate between the parish or township and the county. Such subordinate districts were also known in different parts of the county as wapentakes, wards, and sometimes shires. The name wapentake, which seems to have a dis tinct reference to the military side of the organization, is generally connected with the Danish occupation, and is said to be found only in the Anglian districts, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Rutlandshire, and Leicestershire. In some parts of England a further intermediate division is to be found between the hundred and the county. Thus in Yorkshire we have the trithing, or as it is now called the riding, in Lincolnshire the soke, the lathe in Kent, and the rape in Sussex. The origin of these divisions is generally ascribed to the creative genius of Alfred, who, according to the popular theory, divided the country into counties, the county into hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings or towns. The exact opposite would appear to have been the real process, the larger division being formed by the aggregation of the smaller groups. The significance of the name hundred is a question of some difficulty. The simplest theory is the old one that the hundred denoted first the group of a hundred families into which the community was divided, and then the district occupied by the group, just as the tithing represents ten families and the district which the ten families occupy. Another view is that the hundred is a term of measurement only, denoting a hundred hides of land. Or again, it has been supposed to be the district from which the complement of one hundred warriors was furnished to the host. The hundred as a group of persons is a well-known feature of the constitution of the German tribes, e.g., as described by Tacitus, the centeni ex singulis pagis who formed the army, and the centeni explebe comites who acted as assessors to the chiefs. The hundred as a territorial division in later times is equally common. The real connexion between them is a matter of conjecture. &quot; It is very probable that the colonists of Britain arranged themselves in hundreds of warriors ; it is not probable that the country was carved into equal districts. The only conclusion that seems reasonable is that under the name of geographical hundreds we have the variously-sized payi or districts in which the hundred warriors settled, the boundaries of these being determined by other causes &quot; (Stubbs s. Constitutional History, vol. i.). As a territorial division, the hundred like the shire and the parish had its appropriate moot or court, of which the lords, the priest, and four representatives of the parish were members, and in which a specially selected body of twelve appears to have been charged with active judicial functions. The two leading features of the English constitution represen tation and trial by jury thus appear in germ at least in the old constitution of the hundred. The hundred is now for most of its ancient purposes an obsolete division. The hundred courts were for the most part extinguished by a section in the County Courts Act, 1867, which enacts that no action which can be brought in a county court shall thenceforth be brought in a hundred court, or other inferior court, not being a court of record. The court of record for the hundred of Salford is an example of the survival of this ancient jurisdiction. Perhaps the most important of the surviving duties of the hundred is its liability to make good damages occasioned by rioters. The 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 31 consolidates and amends the laws relating to remedy against the hundred. The principal section enacts that, if any church, house, or other building or section shall be feloniously pulled down or destroyed, the hundred or other district in the nature of a hundred by whatever name it shall be denominated shall be liable to yield full compensation to the persons damnified, provided such person, or his servant having charge of the property, appear before a justice of the peace within seven days after the commission of the offence, to give information. Actions of this kind must be commenced within three months after the offence. The 17 and 18 Viet. c. 104 (Merchant Shipping Act) gives the same remedy in the case of a wrecked ship if plundered by a riotous assemblage, the hundred in or nearest to which the offence was com mitted being made liable.