The Humming-birds are the most lovely of the winged race. Nature seems to have endowed them with her rarest gifts. In creating them she surpassed herself, and exhausted all the charms at her disposal; for she gave them grace, elegance, rapidity of motion, magnificence of plumage, and indomitable courage. What can be more delightful than the sight of these little feathered beauties, flashing with the united fires of the ruby, the topaz, the sapphire, and the emerald, flying from flower to flower amid the richest tropical vegetation? Such are the lightness and rapidity of some of the smaller species, that the eye can scarcely follow the quick beat of their wings. When they hover they appear perfectly motionless, and one might fancy them suspended by an invisible thread. Specially adapted for life in the air, they are unceasingly in motion, searching for their food in the calyx of flowers, from which they drink the nectar with so much gentleness that the plant is scarcely stirred. But the juice and honey of flowers, as some authors affirm, are not their only food—such unsubstantial diet would be insufficient to sustain the great activity displayed almost every moment of their existence. The tongue of the Humming-bird is a microscopic instrument of marvellous arrangement. It is composed of two half-tubes placed one against the other, capable of opening and shutting, like a pair of pliers. Moreover, it is constantly moistened by a glutinous saliva, by which it is enabled to seize and hold Insects. [Illustration: CRESTED HUMMING BIRD.] Proud of their gay colors, the Humming-birds take the greatest care to protect their plumage. They frequently dress themselves by passing their feathers through their bills. The nest of the Humming-bird is a masterpiece. It is about the size of half an apricot. These consist of lichens, and are most artistically interwoven, the crevices being closed up with the Bird’s saliva; the interior is padded with the silky fibres furnished by various plants. This pretty cradle is suspended to a leaf, sometimes to a small branch of rushes, or even to the straw roof of a hut. The Bird lays twice a year a pair of pure white eggs, about the size of a pea. These little creatures are universally admired for their elegance and beauty, and the names given them are generally descriptive of their excessive minuteness. The creoles of the Antilles call them Murmurers; the Spaniards Picaflores; the Brazilians, Shupaflores, or Flower-suckers; finally, the Indians call these darlings Sunbeams. Among the most formidable enemies of the Humming-bird may be reckoned the Monster Spider, which spins its web round their nests, and devours eggs or young; even the old Birds are sometimes its victims.