icuous above all are the Humming-birds, which, revelling in
this region of the sun, are buzzing around the blossoming shrubs like
insects. And pre-eminent among these is the Fiery Topaz, a name that
attempts to express what neither title, nor description, nor coloured
figure can adequately express,--its gemmeous magnificence and lustre.
One of the first ornithologists of the age, the Prince of Canino, has
assigned to the species the honour of being "_inter Trochilides
pulcherrimus_." Description, however, I must give, for want of anything
better, since, even if I possessed a living specimen, I could not
exhibit its living radiance to all my readers: therefore, pray pay
attention to the details, and imagine. The general hue of this imperial
atom is a blazing scarlet, in fine contrast with which the head and
lower part of the throat are deep velvet-black. The gorget of the throat
is emerald green, with a cloud of delicate crimson in the centre. The
lower part of the back, the rump and the upper tail-coverts are of that
beautiful bronzed green which changes to orange gold, so frequently seen
in this tribe; while the wing-quills and tail are purplish black, except
the middle pair of feathers in the latter, which are very slender,
project to a great length, and cross each other; these are green with a
purple gloss.

Among the hundreds of species of this very lovely tribe that swarm in
the intertropical regions of South America, I will select one more for
its surpassing beauty. It is the Bar-tailed Comet. We must look for it
in the temperate and equable valley of the Desaguedero, which leads out
of Lake Titicaca, the largest sheet of water on the South American
continent, and famous in Peruvian tradition, as the scene where Mango
Capac and Mama Ocollo surprised the barbarous aborigines by their first
appearance. On one of the charming islets of this quiet lake, the two
august strangers were seen, clothed in garments; and, declaring that
they were the children of the sun long prophesied of, proceeded to teach
their simple subjects the arts of civilisation, and to establish a
regular government. We must search for our tiny Comet, too, in the
cultivated plains that surround the Cerro of Potosi, that singular cone
sixteen thousand feet in height, which is wholly composed of silver, and
which is estimated to have yielded, during the three hundred years that
have elapsed since the Indian exposed the solid silver, when he
accidental