See it darting through the air almost as quick as thought!--now
it is within a yard of your face!--in an instant gone!--now it flutters
from flower to flower to sip the silver dew--it is now a ruby--now a topaz
--now an emerald--now all burnished gold! It would be arrogant to pretend
to describe this winged gem of Nature after Buffon's elegant description
of it.
Cayenne and Demerara produce the same hummingbirds. Perhaps you would wish
to know something of their haunts. Chiefly in the months of July and
August, the tree called bois immortel, very common in Demerara, bears
abundance of red blossom which stays on the tree for some weeks; then it is
that most of the different species of humming-birds are very plentiful. The
wild red sage is also their favourite shrub, and they buzz like bees round
the blossom of the wallaba tree. Indeed, there is scarce a flower in the
interior, or on the sea-coast, but what receives frequent visits from one
or other of the species.
On entering the forests, on the rising land in the interior, the blue and
green, the smallest brown, no bigger than the humble-bee, with two long
feathers in the tail, and the little forked-tail purple-throated humming-
birds, glitter before you in ever-changing attitudes.
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