Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/294

280 bird dashed screaming through the air, vainly attempting to rid itself of its puny foe." If a person comes near their nest, they will frequently hover very near, and scrutinize him with great deliberation and coolness. We learn from Humboldt, that, "according to the religious belief of the Mexicans, Torgamiqui, the spouse of the god of war, conducted the souls of those warriors who had died in the defense of the gods into the mansions of the sun, and there transformed them into humming-birds—an idea exquisitely spiritual, but perhaps only to be appreciated by those who have seen these birds gleaming like meteors, or shooting-stars, in their native regions."

All these birds are very small. The vervain humming-bird, of Jamaica, is one of the minutest of those at present known. Its body is less than an inch and a half long; its tail, less than an inch; and its total length less than three inches. Most are a little larger, and have longer tails. The largest bird in the family is the gigantic humming-bird of Chili, well proportioned, and nearly eight inches in length.

More than three hundred different species of humming-birds, or Trochilidæ, as the family is called, have been minutely described, and specimens carefully prepared and preserved. Many more species are supposed to exist in Mexico, and in the wilds of Central and South America. The family is divided, by Wood, into twenty-eight genera. While the earlier writers made a less number of divisions, some of the later European naturalists have made a much greater number: in one instance, no less than seventy-six genera and sub-genera. The extent of the family will be apparent when we consider that "the total number of the birds of Europe, of every order or group, amounts to no more than 503 species," while there are probably between 400 and 500 species of humming-birds that are included in this one family.

Their bills are all very slender and sharp. Most of them are long; some are straight; many are curved downward; and a few are curved upward. They all appear to be adapted to the kind of flowers from which the birds obtain their food. Their tongue is a slender sucking-tube, and capable of being thrust out a long distance. It appears as though composed of two minute muscular tubes, lined within by two partial tubes of a substance resembling parchment, laid side by side, and joined together for about half of their length, but separate toward the tip, near which each partial tube becomes less curved, and apparently widened, then tapers to a point, the upper edge being irregularly notched or slit, the barbs pointing backward. The tongue is constantly moistened by a glutinous saliva, by means of which it is