but stopping short at twenty yards off, he flew up into a tree. Another bird of the same kind discovered himself by making a motion to pounce down upon us as we passed underneath; and it seemed evident they took us for kangaroos, having probably never before seen an upright animal in the island of any other species. These birds sit watching in the trees, and should a kangaroo come out to feed in the day-time, it is seized and torn to pieces by these voracious creatures." ""*

The following lines, by Southey, elegantly advert to a myth of the ancients, which obscurely shadows forth that transition which human nature is destined to undergo in our progress from one condition of existence to another. Like the bird, we shall leave behind us in this world all that is gross, impure, and perishable; and as she is fabled to rise from the waters, so we hope to rise from the earth, purified, glorified, and immortal.

"Even as the eagle (ancient storyers say),

When faint with years she feels her flagging wing,
Soars up towards the mid-sun's piercing ray.
Then, filled with fire, into some living spring
Plunges, and casting there her ancient plumes,
The vigorous strength of primal youth resumes."

* "A Voyage to Terra Australis, vol. i. p. 138."

CHAPTER VIII.

SPANIARDS IN MEXICO. ANCIENT MEXICANS.-FEATHER EMBROIDERY.-MONTEZUMA'S AVIARY.-GORGEOUS ARRAY.-WORKS OF ART.-DISTRIBUTION OF HUMMING-BIRDS.-RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. -NESTS.-COURTING.-SINGULAR BOWER.-ACTIONS OF POLYTMUS.-NEST-MAKING.-ANECDOTE.-MODE OF CAPTURE.-WITTY EPITAPH.-THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE MIDDIES.-PETS.-TROCHILUS IN CAPTIVITY.-SONG.-BLUEFIELD'S RIDGE.-GORGEOUS SCENE. -PUGNACITY OF HUMMING BIRDS. A COMBAT. THE 66 DOCTOR BIRD."-FAVOURITE RESORT.-TAMENESS.-A BOLD

BIRD. INTERESTING BIRDS. - NOTES FOR ORNITHOLOGISTS.TONGUE OF HUMMING-BIRD.-BIRDS AND SPIDERS.-MODE OF TAKING FOOD.-MR. GOULD'S COLLECTION. ELEGANT ARRANGEMENT. THE TROCHILIDE."-DOMESTICATION.

"When the morning dawns, and the blest sun again

Lifts his red glories from the eastern main ;
Then, through our woodbines, wet with glittering dews,
The flower-fed Humming-bird his round pursues;
Sips, with inserted tube, the honeyed blooms,
And chirps his gratitude as round he roams;
While richest roses, though in crimson drest,

Shrink from the splendour of his gorgeous breast.
What heavenly tints in mingling radiance fly!
Each rapid movement gives a different dye.

Like scales of burnished gold they dazzling show—

Now sink to shade-now like a furnace glow."-WILSON.

STERN, bigoted, and cruel, were those fierce rapa

cious men, the Spanish conquerors of Mexico: men

SPANIARDS IN MEXICO.

269

cast in an iron mould, which rendered them insensible to all ordinary emotions. It is, however, recorded of Cortez and his companions, that as, on their route to Cempoalla, they marched through a wilderness of noble trees, from whose branches the most beautiful blossoms were suspended, and trod underfoot wild roses, honeysuckles, and sweet-smelling herbs, expressions of admiration escaped them; and when, in addition to these charms of vegetation, clouds of gorgeous butterflies arose, and birds of glorious plumage filled the air with delicious melody, the apathy of these warriors was completely overcome, and they involuntarily burst forth in exclamations of delight, terming the country a terrestrial paradise, and fondly comparing it to the fairest regions of their own sunny land.

First in beauty among those birds which struck them with admiration were the Tomineios, or Humming-birds, which, as old Herrara says, they doubted whether they were bees or butterflies; and civilized man has since vied with the Indian in inventing expressions of admiration of these fair objects. But here-as on other occasions-the child of nature has proved the better poet, and no term has been invented more expressive than their Indian name Guarocigaba, which signifies the Beams or Locks of the Sun. Before this, the cheveux de l'astre de jour of Buffon is a tame comparison.

270

ANCIENT MEXICANS.

It is an interesting fact, that, as a general rule, birds of the most brilliant plumage are found in those parts of the world where the sun shines brightest, the flowers are the loveliest, and where gems and precious metals abound; as if Nature had bountifully brought together the objects most attractive to man. The rubies and the emeralds of the earth are, however, cast into the shade by the living gems which float in the air above them.

Holding a sort of analogy to the mosaic-work of the Italians, and, like it, standing unrivalled, was the the wonderful featherwork of the ancient Mexicans. Doubtless it was the beautiful plumage of the birds of their forests which first suggested this admirable art: but of these the one held in the greatest respect by them was the humming-bird. It was their belief that Toyamiqui, the spouse of the God of War, conducted the souls of warriors who had died in defence of the gods into the mansion of the sun, and there transformed them into humming-birds; they believed, also, that the humming-bird, like the dove of Noah, went forth from the ark and returned with a twig in its mouth. Thus endeared to them by association, and venerated by tradition, this diminutive bird supplied them with the choicest materials for the art in which they most delighted-the plumaje or feather embroidery, with which they could produce all the

FEATHER EMBROIDERY.

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effects of delicate pictures. The most airy tints of landscape, the most complicated combinations of flowers were alike imitated with marvellous fidelity, and the following anecdote, related by Antonio de Herrara, proves their skill in figure-painting :-" Don Philip, the prince of Spain, his schoolmaster did give unto him three figures, or portraitures, made of feathers, as it were to put in a breviarie. His Highness did show them to King Philip, his father, the which his Majestie beholding attentively said, that he had never seene in so small a worke a thing of so great excellency and perfection. One day as they presented to Pope Sixtus Quintus another square bigger than it, wherein was the figure of St. Francis, and that they had told him it was made of feathers by the Indians, he desired to make a trial thereof, touching the table with his fingers to see if it were of feathers."

We can fancy the worthy old gentleman fingering these beautiful works of art with the curiosity of a schoolboy; but his test was certainly less destructive than that of Peter the Great at Copenhagen, who, being shown a choice mosaic, flattened a pistol bullet against it to decide the fact of its being made of stone! Herrara goes on to say that " they make the best figures of feathers in the province of Mechonacan, and in the village of Poscaro. The manner