On Humming Birds | As reported in 1693

Robert Ridgway (1850-1929) in his seminal work “The Humming Birds” (1892) qualified the following excerpt as “the first special description of the bird itself” while pointing out that the first mention made by adventurers in America dates back to 1558.

There is in most parts of America a Bird called by the English the Hum Bird, by the Spaniard Tomineus. He is of the most shining green Color[sic],and very resplendent ; the Colour [sic] doth something resemble some of our English Drake-heads. It doth inhabit some of the colder parts of America, as well as in the hotter. It is the least of all Birds that I have seen there or in England ; her Leg and Foot together is but half an Inch, the other parts answerable, and the Trunk of her Body not an inch. I did weigh one( in those parts) as soon as ever it was killed, whose weight was the tenth part of an Ounce Avoirdapoize, which I take to be about the weight of a Coined Six-pence. And I have weighed here in England a Tit-mouse (which I take to be the least Bird here), and it weighed above Two Shillings, and some Haifa Crown. I saw one of these Nests made of Cotton-Wool, in form and bigness of the Thumb of a Man's Glove, with the Taper end set downwards, where in were two Eggs of the bigness of a Pea, of oval Form. Who can but admire to see the whole Body, and all the parts of a Bird folded up in an Egg, little bigger than a Pepper-Corn ? They feed by thrusting their Bill and Tongue into the blossoms of Trees, and so suck the sweet Juice of Honey from them ; and when he sucks he sits not, but bears up his Body with a hovering Motion of his Wings : But for the relation that he is a curious singing Bird,I think it untrue. God in many of his Creatures is bountiful, yet not lavish ; for I did observe them several years, but never heard them sing; and the Peacock and Jay, though they be of a fine Plume, yet no Singers ; and so I think this Bird is so beautiful to the Eye, as not to please the Ear. An Indian Sagamore is not in his full Pomp and Bravery without one of these Birds in his Ear for a Pendant. He is called the Sum-Bird or Hamming-Bird, because some say he makes a noise like a Spinning Wheel when he flies, which I think rather an Imagination than real ; for I have been many times very near them, both when they hovered and when they did fly, and I never heard any Noise ; besides, their Body and Wings are too small to strike Aire no ugh to make any Noise.* But of this I shall not be positive, because some Authors are opposite to me. It is a Solitary Bird : I never saw but two at a time together, viz. the Male and the Female, they being easily known when together, the Male being somewhat bigger than the Female.

If one takes a small Bird's Wing, and stand 4 or 5 yards from a Candle (when dark) and open the Wing, and look thro' it at the Candle, he may see a most elegant Colour of red and green, which green doth something resemble the Colour of this Bird.

Grew, N. (1693). The Description of the American Tomineius, or Humming Bird, Communicated by Nehemiah Grew, M. D. and Fellow of the Royal Society. Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), 17, 760-761. Retrieved June 24, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/101975

D.G. Elliot, A.K. Fisher, and Robert Ridgway in woods bordering Indian River, Sitka, Alaska, 1899

Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By John Gould - Gould, John: A monograph of the Trochilidae, or family of humming-birds Volume 2 (1861) [2], Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons