. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. 208 AVES. [The whole anatomy of a Humming-bird, internal as well as external, intimates a very close affinity with the Swifts : the beak and tong:ue even of which, thoug-h so different at first sight, will be found on examination to differ only in not being drawn out. The Humming-birds, however, have a complicated inferior larynx, and toes with the usual number of joints: their tail-feathers, as in the Swifts, are ten in number, save in one remarkable species (thence named T. œiiicurus), wherein they are reduced to si
. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. 208 AVES. [The whole anatomy of a Humming-bird, internal as well as external, intimates a very close affinity with the Swifts : the beak and tong:ue even of which, thoug-h so different at first sight, will be found on examination to differ only in not being drawn out. The Humming-birds, however, have a complicated inferior larynx, and toes with the usual number of joints: their tail-feathers, as in the Swifts, are ten in number, save in one remarkable species (thence named T. œiiicurus), wherein they are reduced to six ; the body-feathers have an accessory plume, &c. The beak varies exceedingly, in being more or less prolonged, straight, arched downward, or even recurved, like that of an Avocet, two species exhibiting which structure are now known : those which have straight beaks feed chiefly on minute insects, and have often the tip of the tongue furnished with retroflected lateral spines, precisely as in the Woodpeckers ; while in the majority with curved bills, the upper mandible shuts over and incloses the lower, forming a tube and admirable sucking instrument, adapted for drawing up the nectar of flowers between the tongue and palate : the tail assumes every form in different species, and some have the shafts of the alar quills extraordinarily thickened ; many have ornamental tufts of feathers, most variously disposed ; and in short, the greatest variety of modifications are observable of the one general type, (which is not passerine,) though it is difficult or even impossible to institute satisfactory subdivisions. Not less than a hundred and seventy species are now known, and others are constantly being discovered. All are from America, and, with few exceptions, from the southern division of that continent. The smallest of them, when plucked, are less than a large Bumble Bee ; and one only, that is much larger than any others as yet known, (T. gigas, Auct.), nearly equals the c
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