His labours are unceasing; his success is
proportionate. He commences "The Birds
of Europe " in 1832, completing it in 1837;
a magnificent work, of which, though the
cost is astounding, not a copy now remains
for sale. After the issue of one or two less
important books, he commences "The Birds
of Australia," and completes the series during
ten years' labour. Here are six hundred
species figured and described from actual
observation in their native haunts. Connected
with this work of surpassing beauty, and of
necessarily large cost, there is a touching
history. The wife of the naturalist was the
companion of his voyage. She had drawn
on stone nearly all the plates of "The Birds
of Europe; " but her loving industry was
interrupted. She died "within one short
year after our return from Australia," says
Mr. Gould in his preface; "during her sojourn
in which country an immense mass of drawings,
both ornithological and botanical, were
made by her inimitable hand and pencil."
They went to Australia in 1838; they returned
in 1840. Mr. Gould is now engaged
on "The Birds of Asia; " and has, also, issued
the first part of a "Monograph of the
Trochilidae, or Humming Birds." The industry
which has got together, and the taste and
science which have arranged, the collection
in the Zoological Gardens, will be permanently
represented in this book. The coloured
engravings approach the brilliancy of the
plumage of the birds themselves, in a degree
which is very remarkable.

How shall we attempt to describe these
resplendent children of the day star? The
most vivid colours of the painter's pallette
cannot duplicate their ever-varying tints.
The drawings of Mr. Gould's admirable book,
brilliant as they are with every device that
can impart a metallic, yet transparent lustre,
are opaque when compared with the bright
reality. You look upon their plumage under
the chastened light of a canvas covering,
beneath the glass of their house, and they
give out a brilliancy which art cannot even
then imitate. A sunbeam lights up the
morning, and they reflect the lustre like
gorgeous gems. Language is still more weak,
It must resort to analogies. The naturalists
classify the Humming Birds by typical
names. One species is the velvet bird;
another the topaz; another the amethyst;
another the emerald; another the ruby;
another the sapphire. They have frills,
ruffs, feathered boots, downy muffs, gorgets,
cravats, helmets. Some are the Sapphos,
some the Coquettes, some the Fops. All this
indicates the imperfection of verbal description.
Strength becomes exaggeration. "They
shine as the sun," says one. "They dart
forth pencils of light," says another. Science
then comes in to explain their wondrous
lustre. Andebert demonstrated mathematically
that the organisation of their feathers,
reflecting the rays of light from
innumerable facets, was the cause of their
surprising variety of colour. When, it is stated,
the light glides in a vertical direction over
their scaly feathers, the luminous rays are
absorbed, and they appear black. When it
is reflected from their feathers, each feather
being a reflector, they are emeralds and rubies.
Wondrous provision of the Creator! Was
all this beauty for no purpose but for the
gratification of a passing curiosity, or the
pride of a mathematical demonstration?
Does it not speak to the higher elements of
our nature, where poetry and art imperfectly
abide? The Mexicans felt the poetry when
they looked upon the Humming Birds as
emblems of the soul, as the Greeks regarded
the butterfly; and held that the spirits of
their warriors, who had died in the defence of
their religion, were transformed into these
exquisite creatures, in the mansion of the sun.

The collection of Mr. Gould, as exhibited
in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, is
comprised in twenty-four cases. His materials
for a history of Humming Birds extend to
about three hundred and twenty species. Ten
species only were known to Linnaeus. In
1824 Mr. Bullock had collected a hundred
species. In 1842 Mr. Loddiges possessed a
hundred and ninety-six species. Mr. Gould
has acquired two thousand specimens, many
of which have still to be mounted. The rapid
extension of geographical research, especially
in the new world, is well illustrated by the
additions which are constantly being made to
our knowledge of these birds. They range
over the continent of America, but chiefly
within the tropics. Some species are found
in the West Indian Islands; two in the Island
of Juan Fernandez; one in Chiloe, in the
Pacific. In the vast range of the Andes, at
a height of seven or eight thousand feet, they
are most abundant. They glitter even above
the snow line at an elevation of fourteen or
fifteen thousand feet. Chimborazo has its
peculiar bird; and so has Pichinoha. Every
valley of those wild regions—each a world in
itself from its prodigious depth—exhibits
some variety in torm or colour. From the
immense extent of their geographical range,
we may form some notion of the labour
necessary to describe and classify these
wonders of ornithology—a labour which
seems never ending, through the constant
accumulation of new materials.

Let us endeavour to look a little more
minutely at some of the varieties of beauty in
this collection. Each case generally contains
several species. Properly to describe one case
would occupy several pages. We must be
content with an unscientific glance at a few of
the more attractive.

In the second case in the centre is the
Topaza pyra. Vain were the attempt to
analyse those hues. There is the metallic
lustre of the brightest gold, but beneath the
gold there is a vivid green, running off into
scarlet, contrasting at once and harmonising.