# File lib/aws/cloud_watch/metric.rb, line 96
      def statistics options = {}

        start = options.delete(:start_time)
        stop = options.delete(:end_time)

        options[:namespace] = namespace
        options[:metric_name] = metric_name
        options[:dimensions] = dimensions unless dimensions.empty?
        options[:start_time] = start.respond_to?(:iso8601) ? start.iso8601 : start
        options[:end_time] = stop.respond_to?(:iso8601) ? stop.iso8601 : stop
        options[:period] ||= 60

        resp = client.get_metric_statistics(options)

        MetricStatistics.new(self, resp[:label], resp[:datapoints])

      end