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316 TROPICAL NATUREhumming-birds may be easily distinguished, by the variedcombinations of the characters here briefly enumerated, togetherwith many others of less importance. One group ofbirds will have a short round tail, with crest and long neckfrill;another group a deeply-forked broad tail,combinedwith glowing crown and gorget; one is both bearded andcrested; others have a luminous back and pendent neckplumesand in each of these groups the species will vary in;combinations of colour, in size, and in the proportions of theornamental plumes, so as to produce an unmistakable distinctness;while, without any new developments of form orstructure, there is room for the discovery of hundreds more ofdistinct kinds of humming-birds.Descriptive NamesThe namewe usually give to the birds of this family is derivedfrom the sound of their rapidly-moving wings, a sound whichisproduced by the largest as well as by the smallest member ofthe group. The Creoles of Guiana similarly call them Bourdonsor hummers. The French term, Oiseau-mouche, refers to theirsmall size ;while Colibri is a native name which has comedown from the Carib inhabitants of the West Indies. TheSpaniards and Portuguese call them by more poetical names,such as flower-peckers, flower-kissers, myrtle-suckers whilethe Mexican and Peruvian names show a still higher appreciationof their beauties, their meaning being " rays of the sun,"" tresses of the day-star," and other such appellations. Evenour modern naturalists, while studying the structure andnoting the peculiarities of these living gems, have beenso struck by their inimitable beauties that they have endeavouredto invent appropriate English names for the morebeautiful and remarkable genera. Hence we find in commonuse such terms as sun-gems, sun-stars, hill-stars, wood-stars,sun -angels, star -throats, comets, coquettes, flame -bearers,sylphs, and fairies ; together with many others derived fromthe character of the tail or the crests.Tlie Motions and Habits of Humming-BirdsLet us now consider briefly the peculiarities of flight, themotions, the food, the nests, and general habits of the humming-