The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-07-31
Two Dollars a Year.
HunsmIng Birds.

What, then, shall be said of the hum
ming bird, that tiny dweller in lovely
tropical forests, futtering and darling
among wildernesses of orchids, creepers.
aud air-plants, as gorgeous and fairy like
as the Great blue Brazilian butterfly, its
playfellow in "those Amazonian plains.
lone lying as enchantedY Professor
Orion, writing of the South American
wilds says: ''Lithe lianas, starred with
flowers coil up the stately trees, and then
hang down like strung jewels; they can
be counted only by myriads, yet they are
mere superhuities. The dense dome of
green overhead is supported by crowded
columns often branches for eighty feet
The reckless competition among both
small and great adds to the solemnity and
gloom of tropical forest" In these un-
trodden bowers the humming bird makes
its home. 1t is peculiar to America and
the adjacent islands, and although bear
ing some relation to the sun bird of Asia
and Africa, il is never found across the
water in all its tiny beauty.
a few varieties live in the Northern
United States, and are often seen sport
ing over beds of flowers in the summer
sunshine. Their motion is rapid and
graceful. Now close at hand, plunging
into deep flower cup, in an instant it is
off like ray of light, and disappears no
one knows whittier Never appearing TO
alight, they hover on delicate wing, true
creatures of the air and sunshine.
bright humming- bird of gem like plume
letage,
By Western Indians Living Sunbeam
named"
There are many species of this little
creature, which is found in the greatest
abundance i'll the West Indies and all
through South America Its coloring is
"A marvel of beauty. Now like a ruby,
now a topaz, or emerald, or shimmering
gold, it seems a futtering rainbow, the
most lovely and dainty of all the great
bird family Like the bird of paradise,
the humming bird is never seen on the
ground. Its tiny nest, often no larger
than a walnut shell, is fastened in the
fork of branch, or suspended by fine
spiders webs to leaf or the stalk of
creeper.
Some varieties weave a nest as firm
and durable as leather; others-those
that build on a branch-cover it with
dainty lchens, so that it appears as
portion of the original twig, being com
pletely concealed. There are nests hard
on the inside, others soft and downy as
the finest silk lining, the fibre of certain
plants, can make them The female
which, like all other bird species, is dull
and plain when compared to her gorge
Gus consort, deposits one or, at the most,
two tiny white eggs. In ten days they
are Matched, and in a week after birth
the young are able to leave the nest al
though some months must elpse before
the male acquires the full beauty of his
plumage. Much has been written about
the food of these tiny creatures, the
early naturalists believing that they sub
sisted solely upon nectar of flowers.
But it has now been proved that they
can not long endure diet of sweets alone.
Minute flies, spiders, and almost invisi-
BILE bugs are eagerly sought for by the
humming bird and it has been seen to
make fine breakfast on the gossamer
spider, which it neatly abstracts from the
centre of its silvery web.-Hellen 5.
Conant, in Harper's Magazine for Au-
gust,