| 释义 |
humming-bird
Any bird of the large family Trochilidæ, the species of which make a humming sound by the rapid vibration of their wings.
They are all of very small size, and are usually brilliantly coloured. They are peculiar to America, ranging from Alaska to Patagonia, but most frequent within the tropics.
1637T. Morton New Eng. Canaan (1883) 198 There is a curious bird to see to, called a humming bird, no bigger then a great Beetle. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 60 That which we call the humming bird, much less than a Wren, not much bigger than an humble Bee,..never sitting, but purring with her wings, all the time she stayes with the flower. 1742Pope Dunc. iv. 446 Yet by some object ev'ry brain is stirr'd; The dull may waken to a humming-bird. 1769E. Bancroft Guiana 166 The Black Trochilus, or Humming Bird, is the smallest of the whole tribe, being not bigger than the top of a man's finger. 1877Bryant May Even. iv, The humming-bird, that, in the sun, Wandered from bloom to bloom.
b. attrib. humming-bird bush, æschynomene montevidensis, a South American leguminous shrub much frequented by humming-birds (Treas. Bot. 1866); humming-bird flower, name for various flowers frequented by humming-birds; humming-bird hawk-moth (sphinx), a species of hawk-moth (Macroglossa stellatarum), whose flight resembles that of a humming-bird.
1698J. Petiver in Phil. Trans. XX. 405 Digitalis Mariana Persicæ folio, This I take to be the Humming Bird Tree. 1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 244 Humming-bird hawk-moth. 1834Selby in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. 2. 40 A large moth hovering, in the manner of the Humming-bird Sphinx, in front of the flowers. 1863Bates Nat. Amazon v. (1864) 115 Several times I shot by mistake a hummingbird-hawk-moth, instead of a bird. 1897Willis Flower. Pl. I. 103 Passiflora sp., Abutilon sp. and many more are ‘humming-bird flowers’. |