Lieutenant-Colonel, went out again as secretary and aide-decamp to the great Duke. He assisted at the battle of Quatre Bras, at the retreat of the 17th June, and finally at the battle of Waterloo, at which he received a wound which necessitated the amputation of his right arm. He now retired from active service, became attached, in quality of aide-de-camp, to the Prince Regent, and was elevated to the rank of Commander of the Order of the Bath. He entered at this period upon a career of another character, and in 1818 took his seat in the House of Commons. In the year following, he was named Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief of the Artillery, an office which he held till Canning became Minister in 1827. On the fall of Canning, Lord Wellington made him Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief of the whole army, of which he had been Major-General since 1824. In 1833, he was made Lieutenant-General, and upon the death of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Hardinge having taken the chief command of the army, he became Chief General of the Artillery and took a seat in the House of Lords under the title of Baron Raglan.

W. W.

HUMMING-BIRDS.

NOT only is the humming-bird the smallest of all the feathered tribes, but it is admitted on all hands to be also the most beautiful. Its plumage is gorgeous in the extreme, and we are told that to describe it as composed of feathers of the most brilliant hues of which we can have any conception is to give but a faint idea of the reality; that, in fact, it defies description either with the pen or pencil;' and that the most brilliant metallic tints, and the hues of the most resplendent gems fade before the display made by the little humming-bird.' It would seem that, small as is the creature, there is nothing else in any of the three kingdoms of nature which can in any degree compare in magnificence with this display; and that the humming-bird is therefore fairly entitled to stand alone as the most beautiful of all created things.

There are more than two hundred species of hummingbirds, nearly all of them varying in size; those of the smallest being about the size of a full grown bee, and those of the largest almost that of the swallow. The various

species differ in beauty as well as size; but in all it is the male that is robed the most resplendently. The garb of the female is in all respects more sober than that of her mate, and she especially lacks that ruby-coloured throat which distinguishes the greater number of the males, and the dazzling lustre of which, the travellers tell us, exceeds by many degrees that of the richest gems.

The humming-bird is a native of the tropical regions of the new world only, but these may be said to literally Swarm with them. In the large forests of Mexico and the West Indies, they are almost as numerous as the very leaves; and when a flock of them hover in the sunshine above a bed of flowers, an appearance is presented which excels in magnificence all that the sober imaginations of we northerns can conceive. A cloud of flying diamonds would not dazzle half so much. The plumage of a dead hummingbird is splendid to look upon; but no idea can be formed from it of the appearance of the living bird, when darting to and fro amid a gorgeous flood of southern sunbeams. such times its hues seem to vary with every ray that falls on it; from a thousand points of its little body it emits sparkles which dazzle the eye to look upon; and the sunlight, in its passage through its extended wings, seems congealed into gems as much more brilliant than the ruby as the ruby is more resplendent than an earthy lead-ore.

At

The humming-bird has a remarkably long bill, which serves as a protection to a still longer tongue. This tongue is of a spoon-like shape at its extremity, and is capable of being darted from its sheath with remarkable force and sud denness. This is to enable it to pounce unexpectedly upon flies and insects, for it seems that the old naturalists were mistaken in their supposition that the humming-bird, like the bee, lived only on the sweets that it delights to draw from flowers. That it does live largely upon these things appears true, but it is equally true that the little creature settles in the flower cups as much for the purpose of preying upon the insects hidden in them, as for that of sipping their honey. Indeed, from the accounts given us by Audubon and Wilson, it would seem that the humming-bird is one of the most agile and expert fly-catchers in the world, and that so great are its abilities in this line, that spiders and other insects, even larger than itself, will not unfrequently fall a prey to it. Sometimes, however, the tables are turned

against it, and though, to use the words of a recent writer, 'the humming-bird is free generally from the ravages of rapacious birds and beasts (for what temptation could a bird scarcely larger than the end of one's little finger offer to an eagle or a cat), yet there are found enemies amongst the insect tribe that catch it and suck its blood. The formidable American spider, mygale avicalaria, according to the crafty genius of its nation, though it would not pretend to catch the humming-bird in its hasty flight, creeps slily near, and springs upon the innocent bird whilst sitting upon its nest, and eggs and dam and all fall a prey to the devourer. This spider is described as being three inches in length, one and a half in breadth, and eleven inches in the expansion of its legs, and is as formidable an enemy to the humming-bird as the owl is to the mouse, or the hawk to the sparrow.

Some of the species of humming-birds are migratory, and in the summer season visit the United States. On these occasions they make themselves as much at home in the cultivated gardens of the citizens as ever they could be in their native forests; and so far from being timid or fearful in the least degree, it is said they will settle, in search of honey and insects, upon flowers and bushes, from which bouquets are in the act of being plucked, and that they will even dart into drawing rooms, like bees, and suck the honey from whatever flowers may be arranged upon the tables. The swiftness with which they fly is most remarkable. Their wings are of extraordinary length, and their muscular systems are so powerfully developed, that they are enabled to use these wings-which, compared with those of other birds, are still of most diminutive proportions-to such excellent advantage, that they can outstrip in speed not only the bee and every other insect, but also a great number of birds much larger than themselves. Indeed, the eye is unable to follow them in their flight, and they seem in every respect as though they were almost intended to live solely in the atmosphere, in which they have the power, by the rapid motion of their wings, of holding themselves stationary for hours together. Their feet are, even comparatively speaking, unusually small, and it is very seldom that the little creatures settle upon them. When they do, it is upon the slenderest twigs, and whilst remaining attached to them, rocked to and fro by every breath of wind, however faint,

they delight as much in arranging the feathers of their wings and throat, as ladies do in arranging their curls before a toilet-glass.

The note of the humming-bird is a slender chirp, like that of the cricket, the humming sound from which it takes its name being produced, as in the case of many insects, merely by the extraordinarily rapid motions of its wings. It is rather quarrelsome in its disposition, and if any other member of its own species chance to alight on the same flower, or to come too near its nest in breeding time, the two fly at each other like little furies, rise into the atmosphere amid the utterance of shrill cries, and do not cease fighting till one or the other falls down dead. It will sometimes, too, attack intruders not of its own species; and it does so with so much agility and courage, that it seldom fails to come off conqueror. Its plan is to dart at the eyes of its opponent, and so quick are its movements, and so sharp its beak, that when its anger is aroused to the full extent no enemy could well avoid being worsted, in spite of almost any amount of superiority in size or strength.

Of all the delicate little things beneath the sun, perhaps the nest of the humming-bird is the daintiest and most delicate. It is about an inch in depth, and the same in width, and its interior is composed of a fine silky down, such as we might imagine to compose the bed of the queen of the fairies. Its exterior coating consists principally of lichen, and the nest, therefore, when viewed from below, appears only as a small knot or protuberance, and can hardly be distinguished from the twig on which it is placed. In this nest the female lays two eggs, which are of a pure white, with sometimes here and there a yellow speck, and about the size of a small English pea These it takes about ten days to hatch, and the little creatures, when hatched, come forth about the size of an ordinary house fly. They arrive at maturity in the course of their second summer.

Several attempts have been made to bring living speci mens of the humming-bird to England, but these in every instance except one have failed. The little creature cannot endure the cold of a climate such as ours, neither can it endure being kept in captivity. Nevertheless, instances of its being domesticated have occurred, and with an account of one of the most interesting of these, extracted from Lebat's 'Noveau Voyage aux Iles de L'Amerique,' we con