humming-bird

• “I watch humming-bird hawk moths play round the marigolds in a flower bed in front.”

  Simon & Schuster: Wildwood

• “It seemed to him that he beheld a humming-bird in the midst of toads.”

  Les Miserables

• “Esther was fussing about, as women do, before going to bed; she came and went and fluttered round, singing all the time; you might have thought her a humming-bird.”

  Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

• “The humming-bird, both in shape and coloring, yields to none of the winged species, of which it is the least; and perhaps his beauty is enhanced by his smallness.”

  On the Sublime and Beautiful

• “And as if to lay an omen of blessing on the decision, a small piece of Nature's magic whirred past me, a flash of red more brilliant than a maharaja's rubies, moving so fast I could not easily focus until it paused, hovering to drink from the pendulous blossoms of a fuchsia: a humming-bird.”

  Locked Rooms

• “Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers — a living prismatic gem that changes its colour with every change of position — how in turning it catches the sunshine on its burnished neck and gorges plumes — green and gold and flame-coloured, the beams changing to visible flakes as they fall, dissolving into nothing, to be succeeded by others and yet others?”

  Green Mansions

• “When a humming-bird flies close to my face and stops still in the air, humming like a bee, and then is gone, in that short time I can count a hundred small round bright feathers on its throat.”

  Green Mansions

• “And now in the sunshine standing still, how beautiful! — a thousand times more beautiful than the humming-bird.”

  Green Mansions

• “No, sir, you may talk of natural gifts, and try to make Rima believe that she is what she is, and knows what she knows, because, like a humming-bird or some plants with a peculiar fragrance, she has been made so.”

  Green Mansions

• “To induce her to walk soberly at my side or sit down and enter into conversation with me seemed about as impracticable as to tame the fiery-hearted little humming-bird that flashes into sight, remains suspended motionless for a few seconds before your face, then, quick as lightning, vanishes again.”

  Green Mansions

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