Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
HUMMEL, JOHANN NEPOMUK (1778-1837)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: HOR-I25
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:HUMMEL, JOHANN See also:NEPOMUK (1778-1837) , See also:German composer and pianist, was See also:born on the 14th of See also:November 1978, at See also:Pressburg, in See also:Hungary, and received his first See also:artistic training from his See also:father, himself a musician. In 1785 the latter received an See also:appointment as conductor of the See also:orchestra at the See also:theatre of Schikaneder, the friend of See also:Mozart and the librettist of the Magic See also:Flute. It was in this way that Hummel became acquainted with the composer, who took a See also:great See also:fancy to him, and even invited him to his See also:house for a considerable See also:period. During two years, from the See also:age of seven to nine, Hummel received the invaluable instruction of Mozart, after which he set out with his father on an artistic tour through See also:Germany, See also:England and other countries, his See also:clever playing winning the admiration of amateurs. He began to compose in his See also:eleventh See also:year. After his return to See also:Vienna he completed his studies under Albrechtsbcrger and See also:Haydn, and for a number of years devoted himself exclusively to See also:composition. At a later period he learned See also:song-See also:writing from See also:Salieri. For some years he held the appointment of orchestral conductor to See also:Prince Eszterhazy, probably entering upon this See also:office in 1807. From 1811 to 1815 he lived in Vienna. On the 18th of May 1813 he married Elisabeth RSckl, a See also:singer, and the See also:sister of one of See also:Beethoven's See also:friends. It was not till 1816 that he again appeared in public as a pianist, his success being quite extraordinary. His See also:gift of improvisation at the piano was especially admired, but his larger compositions also were highly appreciated, and for a See also:time Hummel was considered one of the leading musicians of an age in which Beethoven was in the See also:zenith of his See also:power. In See also:Prussia, which he visited in 1822, the ovations offered to him were unprecedented, and other countries—See also:France in 1825 and 1829, See also:Belgium in 1826 and England in 1830 and 1833—added further laurels to his See also:crown. He died in 1837 at See also:Weimar, where for a See also:long time he had been the musical conductor of the See also:court theatre. His compositions are very numerous, and comprise almost every See also:branch of See also:music. He wrote, amongst other things, several operas, both tragic and comic, and two See also:grand masses (Op. 8o and 111). Infinitely more important are his compositions for the See also:pianoforte (his two concerti in A See also:minor and B minor, and the See also:sonata in F See also:sharp minor), and his chamber music (the celebrated septet, and several trios, &c.). His experience as a player and teacher of the pianoforte was embodied in his Great
Pianoforte School (Vienna), and the excellence of his method is further proved by such pupils as See also:Henselt and See also: See also:Andre Thevet, in his Singularitez de la France antarctique (See also:Antwerp, 1558, fol. 92), has been more than once cited as the earliest author to mention humming-birds, which he did under the name of Gouambuch; but it is quite certain that See also:Oviedo, whose Hystoria See also:general de See also:las Indias was published at See also:Toledo in 1525, preceded him by more than See also:thirty years, with an See also:account of the " paxaro See also:mosquito " of Hispaniola, of which See also:island " the first chronicler of the Indies " was See also:governor.' This name, though now apparently disused in See also:Spanish, must have been current about that time, for we find See also:Gesner in 1555 (De avium natura, iii. 629) translating it literally into Latin as Passer muscatus, owing, as he says, his knowledge of the bird to See also:Cardan, the celebrated mathematician, astrologer and physician, from whom we learn (Comment. in Ptolem. de astr. judiciis, See also:Basel, 1554, p. 472) that, on his return to See also:Milan from professionally attending See also:Archbishop See also: As Sundevall remarks (Tentamen, p. 87, See also:note), rpoxDDos was evidently the name commonly given by the See also:ancient Greeks to the smaller plovers, and was not improperly applied by See also:Herodotus (ii. 68) to the See also:species that feeds in the open mouth of the See also:crocodile—the Pluvianus aegyptius of modern ornithologists—in which sense See also:Aristotle (Hist. animalium, ix. 6) also uses it. But the received See also:text of Aristotle has two other passages (ix. i and 11) wherein the word appears in a wholly different connexion, and can there be only taken to mean the wren—the usual See also:Greek name of which would seem to be $py os (Sundevall, Om Aristotl. Djurarter, No. 54). Though none of his editors or commentators has suggested the possibility of such a thing, one can hardly help suspecting that in these passages some See also:early copyist has substituted -rpovtaos for opxiXos, and so laid the See also:foundation of a curious See also:error. It may be re-marked that the crocodile of Santo Domingo is said to have the like office done for it by some See also:kind of bird, which is called by Descourtilz Pliny, applied that name in a generic sense (Ornith. spec. novum, pp. 47, 48) to both. Taking the hint thus afforded, See also:Linnaeus very soon after went farther, and, excluding the wrens, founded his genus Trochilus for the reception of such humming-birds as were known to him. The unfortunate See also:act of the great nomenclator cannot be set aside ; and, since his time, ornithologists, with but few exceptions, have followed his example, so that nowadays humming-birds are universally recognized as forming the See also:family Trochilidae. The relations of the Trochilidae to other birds were for a long while very imperfectly understood. See also:Nitzsch first See also:drew See also:attention to their agreement in many essential characters with the swifts, Cypselidae, and placed the two families in one See also:group, which he called Macrochires, from the great length of their See also:manual bones, or those forming the extremity of the wing. The name was perhaps not very happily chosen, for it is not the distal portion that is so much out of ordinary proportion to the See also:size of the bird, but the proximal and median portions, which in both families are curiously dwarfed. Still the manus, in comparison with the other parts of the wing, is so long that the See also:term Macrochires is not wholly inaccurate. The See also:affinity of the Trochilidae and Cypselidae, once pointed out, became obvious to every careful and unprejudiced investigator, and there are probably few systematists now living who refuse to admit its validity. More than this, it is confirmed by an examination of other osteological characters. The " lines," as a See also:boat-builder would say, upon which the See also:skeleton of each See also:form is constructed are precisely similar, only that whereas the See also:bill is very See also:short and the See also:head wide in the swifts, in the humming-birds the head is narrow and the bill long—the latter See also:developed to an extraordinary degree in some of the Trochilidae, rendering them the longest-billed birds known.' See also:Huxley takes these two families, together with the goatsuckers (Caprimulgidae), to form the See also:division Cypselomorphae—one of the two into which he separated his larger group Aegithognathae. However, the most noticeable portion of the humming-bird's skeleton is the sternum, which in proportion to the size of the bird is enormously developed both longitudinally and vertically, its deep See also:keel and posterior protraction affording abundant space for the powerful muscles which drive the wings in their rapid vibrations as the little creature poises itself over the See also:flowers where it finds its See also:food.' So far as is known, all humming-birds possess a protrusible See also:tongue, in conformation See also:peculiar among the class Aves, though to some extent similar to that member in the woodpeckers (Picidae)3—the " horns " of the hyoid apparatus upon which it is seated being greatly elongated, passing See also:round and over the back part of the head, near the See also:top of which they meet, and thence proceed forward, lodged in a broad and deep groove, till they terminate in front of the eyes. But, unlike the tongue of the woodpeckers, that of the humming-birds consists of two cylindrical tubes, tapering towards the point, and forming two sheaths which contain the extensile portion, and are capable of separation, thereby facilitating the extraction of See also:honey from the nectaries of flowers, and with it, what is of far greater importance for the bird's sustenance, the small See also:insects that have been attracted to feed upon the honey.* These, on the tongue being withdrawn into the bill, are caught by the mandibles (furnished (Voyage, iii. 26), a " Todier," but, as Geoff r. St Hilaire observes (Descr. de l'Egypte, ed. 2, See also:xxiv. 440), is more probably a See also:plover. Unfortunately the See also:fauna of Hispaniola is not much better known now than in Oviedo's days. ' Thus Docimastes ensifer, in which the bill is longer than both head and See also:body together. 2 This is especially the See also:case with the smaller species of the group, for the larger, though See also:shooting with equal celerity from See also:place to place, seem to flap their wings with comparatively slow but not less powerful strokes. The difference was especially observed with respect to the largest of all humming-birds, Patagona gigas, by See also:Darwin. 3 The resemblance, so far as it exists, must be merely the result of analogical See also:function, and certainly indicates no affinity between the families. * It is probable that in various members of the Trochilidae the structure of the tongue, and other parts correlated therewith, will be found subject to several and perhaps considerable modifications, as is the case in various members of the Picidae.in the See also:males of many species with See also:fine, horny, sawlike teeth5), and swallowed in the usual way. The See also:stomach is small, moderately See also:muscular, and with the inner coat slightly hardened. There seem to be no caeca. The trachea is remarkably short, the bronchi beginning high up on the See also:throat, and song-muscles are wholly wanting, as in all other Cypselomorphae.6 Humming-birds comprehend the smallest members of the class Aves. The largest among them See also:measures no more than 8 and the least 21 in. in length, for it is now admitted generally that See also:Sloane must have been in error when he described (Voyage, ii. 308) the " least humming-bird of See also:Jamaica" as " about r t in. long from the end of the bill to that of the tail "—unless, indeed, he meant the proximal end of each. There are, however, several species in which the tail is very much elongated, such as the Aithurus polytmus (fig. 1) of Jamaica, and the remarkable Loddigesia mira- bilis of Chachapoyas in See also:Peru, which last was for some time only known from a unique specimen (See also:Ibis, 1880,p. 152) but "trochilidists" in giving their measurements do not take these extraordinary de- velopments into account. Next to their generally small size, the best-known characteristic of the Trochilidae is the wonderful brilliancy of the plumage of nearly all their forms, in which respect they are surpassed by no other birds, and are only equalled by a few, as, for instance, by the Nectariniidae, or See also:sun-birds of the tropical parts of the Old See also:World, in popular estimation so often confounded with them. The number of species of , humming-birds now known to exist considerably exceeds 400; and, though none departs very widely from what a morphologist would deem the typical structure of the family, the amount of modification, within certain limits, presented by the various forms is surprising and even bewildering to NFro H eCavbr d4e the uninitiated. But the features that are ,Buds," by permission of ordinarily chosen by systematic ornithologists See also:Macmillan& Co., Ltd. in See also:drawing up their schemes of See also:classification are FIG. 1.--Aithurus found by the " trochilidists," or See also:special students polytmus. of the Trochilidae, insufficient for the purpose of arranging these birds in See also:groups, and characters on which genera can be founded have to be sought in the style and coloration of plumage, as well as in the form and proportions of those parts which are most generally deemed sufficient to furnish them. Looking to the large number of species to be taken into account, convenience has demanded what See also:science would withhold, and the genera established by the ornithologists of a preceding See also:generation have been broken up by their successors into multitudinous sections—the more adventurous making from 15o to 18o of such groups, the modest being content with 120 or thereabouts, but the last dignifying each of them by the See also:title of genus. It is of course obvious that these small divisions cannot be here considered in detail, nor would much See also:advantage accrue by giving See also:statistics from the works of See also:recent trochilidists, such as See also:Gould,7 Mulsant8 and Elliot.9 It would be as unprofitable here to trace the successive steps by which the See also:original genus Trochilus of Linnaeus, or the two genera Polytmus -apd Mellisuga of See also:Brisson, have been split into others, or have been added 6 These are especially observable in Rhamphodon See also:naevius and Androdon aequatorialis. 6 P. H. See also:Gosse (Birds of Jamaica, p. 13o) says that Mellisuga minima, the smallest species of the family, has " a real song "—but the like is not recorded of any other.
7 A Monograph of the Trochilidae or Humming-birds, 5 vols. See also:imp. fol. (See also:London, 1861, with Introduction in 8vo).
8 Histoire naturelle See also:des oiseaux-mouches, ou colibris, 4 vols., with supplement, imp. 4to (See also:Lyon-Geneve-See also:Bale, 1874-1877).
9 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 317, A Classification and Synopsis of the Trochilidae, r vol. imp. 4to (Washington, 1879).
to, by modern writers, for not one of these professes to have arrived at any final, but only a provisional, arrangement; it seems, however, expedient to See also:notice the fact that some of the authors of the 18th century i supposed themselves to have seen the way to dividing what we now know as the family Trochilidae into two groups, the distinction between which was that in the one the bill was arched and in the other straight, since that difference has been insisted on in many works. This was especially the view taken by Brisson and See also:Buffon, who termed the birds having the arched bill " colibris," and those having it straight " oiseaux-mouches." The distinction wholly breaks down, not merely because there are Trochilidae which possess almost every gradation of decurvation of the bill, but some which have the bill upturned after the manner of that See also:strange bird the avocet,' while it may be remarked that several of the species placed by those authorities among the " colibris " are not humming-birds at all.
In describing the extraordinary brilliant plumage which most of the Trochilidae exhibit, ornithologists have been compelled to adopt the vocabulary of the jeweller in See also:order to give an See also:idea of the indescribable radiance that so often breaks forth from some part or other of the investments of these feathered gems. In all, See also:save a few other birds, the most imaginative writer See also:sees gleams which he may adequately designate metallic, from their resemblance to burnished See also:gold, See also:bronze, See also:copper or See also:steel, but such similitudes wholly fail when he has to do with the Trochilidae, and there is hardly a See also:precious See also: In some cases this radiance beams from the brow, in some it glows from the throat, in others it shines from the tail-coverts, in others it sparkles from the tip only of elongated feathers that See also:crest the head or surround the See also:neck as with a frill, while again in others it may appear as a luminous streak across the cheek or auriculars. The feathers that See also:cover the upper parts of the body very frequently have a metallic lustre of See also:golden-See also:green, which in other birds would be thought sufficiently beautiful, but in the Trochilidae its sheen is overpowered by the almost dazzling splendour that radiates from the spots where Nature's See also:lapidary has set her jewels. The See also:flight feathers are almost invariably dusky—the rapidity of their See also:movement would, perhaps, render any display of See also:colour ineffective: while, on the contrary, the feathers of the tail, which, as the bird hovers over its food-bearing flowers, is almost always See also:expanded, and is therefore comparatively motionless, often exhibit a See also:rich trans-lucency, as of stained See also:glass, but iridescent in a manner that no stained glass ever is—See also:cinnamon merging into See also:crimson, crimson changing to See also:purple, purple to See also:violet, and so to See also:indigo and See also:bottle-green. But this part of the humming-bird is subject to quite as much modification in form as in colour, though always consisting of ten rectrices. It may be nearly square, or at least but slightly rounded, or See also:wedge-shaped with the See also:middle quills prolonged beyond the See also:rest; or, again, it may be deeply forked, sometimes by the over-growth of one or more of the intermediate pairs, but most generally by the development of the See also:outer pair. In the last case the lateral feathers may be either broadly webbed to their tip or See also:acuminate, or again, in some forms, may lessen to the filiform See also:shaft, and suddenly enlarge into a terminal spatulation as in the forms known as " racquet tails." The wings do not offer so much variation; still there are a few groups in which diversities occur that require notice. The primaries are invariably ten in number, the outermost being the longest, except in the single instance of Aithurus, where it is shorter than the next. The group known as " sabre-wings," comprising the genera Canipylopterus, Eupetomena and Sphenoproctus, See also:present a most curious sexual peculiarity, for while the See also:female has nothing remarkable in the form of the wing, in the male the shaft of two or three of the outer primaries is dilated proximally, and bowed near the middle in a manner almost unique among birds. The feet again, diminutive as they are, are very diversified in form. In most the See also:tarsus is See also:bare, but in some groups, as Eriocnemis, it is clothed with tufts of the most delicate down, sometimes See also:black, sometimes See also:buff, but more often of a snowy whiteness. In some the toes are weak, nearly equal in length, and furnished with small rounded nails; in others they are largely developed, and armed with long and sharp claws. Apart from the well-known brilliancy of plumage, of which enough has been here said, many humming-birds display a large amount of ornamentation in the addition to their attire of crests of various shape and size, elongated See also:ear-tufts, projecting neck-frills, and See also:pendant beards—forked or forming a single point. But it would be impossible here to dwell on a tenth of these beautiful modifications, each of which as it comes to our knowledge excites fresh surprise and exemplifies the ancient adage maxime mircnda in minimis Nature. It must be remarked, however, that there are certain forms which possess little or no brilliant colouring at all, but, as most tropical birds go, are very soberly clad. These are known to trochilidists as " hermits," and by Gould have been separated as a subfamily under the name of Phaethornithinae, though Elliot says he cannot find any i Salerne must be excepted, especially as he was rebuked by Buffon for doing what we now deem right. ' For example Avocettula recurvirostris of See also:Guiana and A. euryptera of See also:Colombia.characters to distinguish it from the Trochilidae proper. But sight is not the only sense that is affected by humming-birds. The large species known as Pterophanes temmincki has a strong musky odour, very similar to that given off by the petrels, though, so far as appears to be known, that is the only one of them that possesses this See also:property.' All well-informed See also:people are aware that the Trochilidae are a family peculiar to See also:America and its islands, but one of the commonest of See also:common errors is the belief that humming-birds are found in See also:Africa and See also:India—to say nothing even of England. In the first two cases the See also:mistake arises from confounding them with some of the brightly-coloured sun-birds (Nectariniidae), to which See also:British colonists or residents are See also:apt to apply the better-known name; but in the last it can be only due to the want of See also:perception which disables the observer from distinguishing between a bird and an See also:insect—the See also:object seen being a See also:hawk-See also:moth (Macroglossa), whose mode of feeding and rapid flight certainly bears some resemblance to that of the Trochilidae, and hence one of the species (M. stellarum) is very generally called the " humming-bird hawk-moth." But though confined to the New World the Trochilidae pervade almost every part of it. In the See also:south Eustephanus galeritus has been seen flitting about the fuchsias of Tierra del Fuego in a See also:snow-See also:storm, and in the See also:north-See also:west Selatophorus See also:rufus in summer visits the ribes-blossoms of See also:Sitka, while in the north-See also:east Trochilus colubris charms the See also:vision of Canadians as it poises itself over the See also:althaea-bushes in their gardens, and extends its range at least so far as See also:lat. 57° N. Nor is the See also:distribution of humming-birds limited to a See also:horizontal direction only, it rises also vertically. Oreotrochilus chimborazo and 0. pichincha live on the lofty mountains whence each takes its specific name, but just beneath the See also:line of perpetual snow, at an See also:elevation of some 16,000 ft., dwelling in a world of almost See also:constant See also:hail, See also:sleet and See also:rain, and. feeding on the insects which resort to the indigenous flowering See also:plants, while other peaks, only inferior to these in height, are no less frequented by one or more species. Peru and See also:Bolivia produce some of the most splendid of the family—the genera Cometes, Diphlogaena and Thaumastura, whose very names indicate the glories of their bearers. The comparatively gigantic Patagona inhabits the west See also:coast of South America, while the isolated rocks of Juan See also:Fernandez not only afford a See also:home to the Eustephanus but also to two other species of the same genus which are not found
elsewhere. The slopes of the See also:Northern See also:Andes and the See also: R. See also:Wallace, H. W. See also:Bates and others. But there is no one appreciative 3 The specific name of a species of Chrysolampis, commonly written by many writers moschitus, would See also:lead to the belief that it was a mistake for moschitus, i.e. " musky," but in truth it originates with their carelessness, for though they quote Linnaeus as their authority they can never have referred to his works, or they would have found the word to be mosquitus, the " mosquito " of Oviedo, awkwardly, it is true, Latinized. If emendation be needed, muscatus, after Gesner's example, is undoubtedly, preferable. ts. From The See also:Cambridge See also:National See also:History, vol. ix., Birds," by permission of Macmillan & Co. Ltd. of the beauties of nature who will not recall to memory with delight the time when a live humming-bird first met his gaze. The suddenness of the apparition, even when expected, and its brief duration, are alone enough to See also:fix the fluttering vision on the mind's See also:eye. The wings of the bird, if flying, are only visible as a thin See also:grey film, bounded above and below by fine black threads, in form of a St See also:Andrew's cross,—the effect on the observer's retina of the instantaneous reversal of the See also:motion of the wing at each See also:beat—the strokes being so rapid as to leave no more distinct See also:image. Consequently an adequate See also:representation of the bird on the wing cannot be produced by the draughtsman. Humming-birds show to the greatest advantage when engaged in contest with another, for See also:rival cocks fight fiercely, and, as may be expected, it is then that their plumage flashes with the most glowing tints. But these are quite invisible to the ordinary spectator except when very near at See also:hand, though doubtless efficient enough for their object, whether that be to inflame their See also:mate or to irritate or daunt their opponent, or something that we cannot See also:compass. Humming-birds, however, will also often sit still for a while, chiefly in an exposed position, on a dead twig, occasionally darting into the See also:air, either to catch a passing insect or to encounter an adversary; and so pugnacious are they that they will frequently attack birds many times bigger than themselves, without, as would seem, any provocation. The food of humming-birds consists mainly of insects, mostly gathered in the manner already described from the flowers they visit; but, according to Wallace, there are many species which he has never seen so occupied, and the " hermits " especially seem to live almost entirely upon the insects which are found on the See also:lower See also:surface of leaves, over which they will closely pass their bill, balancing themselves the while vertically in the air. The same excellent observer also remarks that even among the common See also:flower-frequenting species he has found the alimentary See also:canal entirely filled with insects, and very rarely a trace of honey. It is this fact doubtless that has hindered almost all attempts at keeping them in confinement for any length of time—nearly every one making the experiment having fed his captives only with See also:syrup, which, without the addition of some See also:animal food, is insufficient as sustenance, and seeing therefore the wretched creatures gradually sink into inanition and See also:die of See also:hunger. With better management, however, several species have been brought on different occasions to Europe, some of them to England. The beautiful nests of humming-birds, than which the work of fairies could not be conceived more delicate, are to be seen in most museums, and will be found on examination to be very solidly and tenaciously built, though the materials are generally of the slightest —See also:cotton-See also:wool or some See also:vegetable down and See also:spiders' webs. They vary greatly in form and ornamentation—for it would seem that the portions of See also:lichen which frequently bestud them are affixed to their exterior with that object, though probably concealment was the original intention. They are mostly See also:cup-shaped, and the singular fact is on See also:record (Zool. See also:Journal, v. p. 1) that in one instance as the See also:young See also:grew in size the walls were heightened by the parents, until at last the See also:nest was more than twice as big as when the eggs were laid and hatched. Some species, however, suspend their nests from the See also:stem or tendril of a climbing plant, and more than one case has been known in which it has been attached to a See also:hanging rope. These pensile nests are said to have been found loaded on one See also:side with a small stone or bits of See also:earth to ensure their safe See also:balance, though how the compensatory See also:process is applied no one can say. Other species, and especially those belonging to the " See also:hermit " group, weave a frail structure round the side of a drooping See also:palm-See also:leaf. The eggs are never more than two in number, quite See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] HUMITE |
[next] HUMMOCK (of uncertain derivation; cf. hump or hillo... |