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Vi PREFACE.

constant companion during days of toil by road and rail ; and I ultimately succeeded in bringing

a living pair within the confines of the British Islands, and a single individual to London, where
oO

it lived for two days, when, from the want of proper food or the change of climate, it died.

Although so enthusiastically attached to the subject, I should not have formed a collection of
the Trochilide, or attempted an account of their history, had not my late friend Mr. George
Loddiges (whose many excellences are too universally known to need any comment a me)
been prematurely removed from among us. Prior to his lamented death, whatever species I
procured from my various correspondents were freely placed at his disposal ; and his collection
was then unrivalled, and the pride of the owner as well as of his country, so far as a private
collection could be considered of. national importance. It was not until after Mr. Loddiges’
decease that I determined upon forming the collection I myself possess, which now far surpasses
every other, both in the number of species and examples. Ten years ago this collection was
exhibited for a short time in the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park, and, I
believe, afforded unmixed delight to the many thousands who visited those Gardens in the
memorable year 1851. Many favourable notices of it appeared in the periodicals of the day ;
and my friend Mr. Martin published a small popular work in express reference to it. During
the period which has since elapsed I have been unceasing in my endeavours to obtain every
species which has been discovered by the enterprising travellers of this country, of Germany, of
France, and of America. It would be invidious were I to extol the exertions of one more than
those of another, nor could I do so without committing mjustice ; for the travellers of all these
countries have shown equal intrepidity in their endeavours to bring to light the hidden treasures
of the great primzeval forests of the New World. Some of them, such as Azara, Spix, Bullock,
Delattre, Floresi, Dyson, Hoffmann, and Mathews (the discoverer of the wonderful Loddigesia
mirabilis), are no longer among us: of those living who have paid especial attention to the
Humming-Birds I may mention the names of Prince Maximilian of Wied, Waterton, Gosse,
Warszewicz, Linden, Bridges, Jameson, Wallace, Bates, Darwin, Reeves, Hauxw

ell, Skinner,

Bourcier, Sallé, Salvin, Fraser, Gundlach, Bryant, Montes de Oca, &e. It is to these men,

livmg and dead, that science is indebted for a knowledge of so many of these “gems of

creation ;" and it is by their exertions that such collections as Mr. Loddiges’ and my own have

been formed. I regret exceedingly that I have not seen so much of this lov

ely group of birds

in a state of nature as I could have wished: the traveller and the historian are seldom united ;

and in this instance it would have been impossible. The constant personal attention and care

necessary for the production of such a work as « A Monograph of the Trochilidee’ could only be

given m a metropolis ; for in no other place could such a publication be accomplished without