Sometimes artificial flowers are made of the feathers of the humming bird, especially those taken from the breast - the different colors being arranged to represent the different parts of the flower. Nothing can exceed the gorgeous beauty of these imitation.
Gentleness of Disposition
Humming birds are of a very gentle disposition, and they could be easily tamed were it not that they are of too delicate a constitution to bear confinement; and thus, whenever they are brought into the house and shut up in a cage or an aviary, they soon droop and die. While they are thus kept they must be fed with fresh flowers, or else with honey, thinned with a little water.
They build their nests upon shrubs or upon the stems of vines or other climbing plants, nor far from the ground, and the nests are so small that, when seen from a short distance, one of them might very easily be mistaken for a little tuft of moss, or a moss-covered knot upon the wood. There are two eggs only laid in the nest. They are white, and not much larger than peas.
These birds are very common in the West Indies and in all the tropical parts of America. A young English gentleman, who was about embarking for England, happened, just before he went on board his ship, to find a humming bird's nest with the mother sitting upon it, sitting. He approached very gently to the place. The bird watched him anxiously, but she was too intent upon her duty to her eggs to fly away. The gentleman carefully cut off the branch and carried, it, nest, bird, and all, on board the ship, intending to present his prize to a lady of his acquaintance on reaching his native land.
He fed the bird on home and water during the voyage. She became quite tame, and continued on the nest until the little birds were hatched, but before the end of the voyage she died. The little birds lived to reach the land. The gentleman presented them to the lady for whom the present was intended. One of them died very soon, but the other lived a month or two, and was so tame that he would put his bill to his mistress's lips and draw out honey and water from a little supply which she had provided for him there. It was to him just as if her lips had been the petal of a flower.
Chapter 5. The Indian Races
Question of the Origin of the Different Races of Men
Whether it would seem more probable, judging by the light afforded us by the observation of nature alone, and without regard to the declarations of Scripture, that all the different races of men have descended from one common stock, or that each race had a different origin, and thus now forms a different species from the rest, is a question that has been much discussed by naturalists and philosophers.
In making these inquiries several considerations have operated upon the minds of philosophers to lead them to set out of the case the testimony of the Scriptures. In the first place, some of the most distinguished naturalists and philosophers do not believe in the divine authority of the Scriptures, but regard them simply as ancient writings, of great moral and historical value indeed, but yet not at all of infallible authority on any subject. Others, who believe in the Scriptures as a revelation of the divine will, think that they are intended to guide us only in matters of faith and practice, and that it was not the design of the Holy Spirit, in inditing them, to teach us science and philosophy, but to leave us, in respect to those branches of knowledge, entirely to our own observations and studies in the field of nature itself.
There is a third class still, namely, those who think that while every inference which may be fairly drawn, even from the incidental allusions contained in the Scriptures, may be entirely relied upon as a truth revealed to us by divine authority, whatever may be the subject to which it relates, we are not to take these inferences with us, either to aid or restrict us, when we go forth into the field of the world as students of natures, but are to act independently, and avail ourselves of the lights of science and philosophy alone. They think, in other words, that the true object which we should have in view in studying nature is simply to learn what nature herself teaches, and that in doing this we must interpret what we see solely by the light of our reason and reflection. We may distrust the conclusions that we come to, when we arrive at them, if we find that they conflict with convictions obtained in other ways, but in the process of coming to these conclusions we must be guided honestly and entirely by what our observations of nature herself teaches, and by those alone.
Distinction of Races
There are four or five and perhaps many more distinct races of men upon the earth, each separated from the rest by very decided and apparently very permanent lines of demarcation. The differences are not merely those of color, or of any other external mark, but they relate quite as much to the internal organization of the individual, both bodily and mental. These different races are subdivided into many others, all marked by distinctive lines, more or less decisive and permanent. The great question for naturalists to solve has been whether, judging from the light of science alone, without any aid from the declarations of Scripture, we should conclude that all these different forms have descended from one pair.
Now, although, in coming to their conclusion on this subject, philosophers have set the authority of the Scriptures, for the time being, aside, it is remarkable that the conclusion which they have come to corresponds with and confirms the testimony of the Mosaic records; for the whole body of naturalists, with few if any exceptions, have concurred in the opinion that the differences between the various races of men, great as they are, and permanent as they seem to be within the periods subject to our observation, are not specific differences - that is, that they are not such as, judging from observations made in other divisions of the animal world, imply a separate original parentage. In other words, that there is nothing in them which should preclude the idea of their all being descended from a single pair.
Causes of the Differences Observed
It has been very common to presume, on the supposition that all the races of men were descended from a single pair, that the only causes which can account for the diversities of race which we now observe consist in differences of climate, of food, of modes of life, and of other such external influences as these. And some persons, after attempting to prove that such causes as these are not sufficient to account for changes so great, have inferred that all the races could not have descended from the same pair.
But there is another class of causes of a totally different nature from these, and far more powerful, which have undoubtedly operated very extensively in producing these changes. The existence of them is well known, though the nature and operation of them is very imperfectly understood.
These causes are the hidden influences which produce those mental or bodily peculiarities which are born with us, in contradistinction from those which are subsequently produced by education, the circumstances of life, or external influences. A child whose skin is browned or darkened by playing in the sun is an example of one species of effect. A child born with a dark complexion is an example of the other kind.
The kinds of difference between parents and off spring of this innate character are very numerous, and sometimes very striking. A gentle and amiable father and mother may give birth to a very froward and irritable child. It is often the case, it is true, that such frowardness and irritability may be the result of bad management, but still there are cases where it is impossible to doubt that they have their origin in the inner constitution of the body or of the mind. In the same manner, parents who both have black hair and black eyes may give birth to a child with blue eyes and auburn hair.