, 1878-07-25
The Humming Bird.

The Humming Bird.
The appearance OF the humming bird
is utterly unlike that of any other living
creature. We are admiring some bIil.
liant and beautiful flower, when there
suddenly appears before US a small, dark
object, suspended, as it were, between
four short black threads, meeting each
other in cross. For an instant it shows
in front Of the flower; again another in
stant, and, emitting mOmentary flash of
emerald and sapphire light, it is vanish
ing, lcsscning in the distance as it shoots
away to a speck that the eye cannot take
note Of. Indeed, the little atom of life
comes and goes with the rapidity of a
gnat or dragon fly. Audubon tells us
that the small size Of the ruby humming
bird renders it impossible to follow its
flight with the eye for more than fifty
yards. A person standing in the garden
will hear the humming of their wings
and see the little birds themselves within
few feet Of him at Que moment; the
next they will be out of sight and hear
ing. Gould tells us that the tiny crea-
ture lives in the air like gnat or a but
tertly. 1t often mounts up the towering
trees and then shoots off like little me-
teor at right angle. At other times it
will gently buzz among the flowers upon
the ground. The next moment it is hov-
eriug over diminutive weed, and then
it is seen at distance Of forty yards,
whittier it has vanished with the quick
ness Of thought. Professor Wallace has
devoted considerable period to minute
study Of the habits of the humming bird,
and has come to the conclusion that it is
a tropical swift or swallow, modified in a
long course of many generations from its
original ancestor, but retaining its old
characteristics Of an essentially insect
feeder. 1t is true that, down to the time
of Button, it was believed that the hum
ming bird lived solely on the nectar of
flowers, but since then it has been ascer-
tained beyond all possibility of doubt
that it feeds largely, and in some cases
wholly, on insects. The birds have been
seea in winter picking dead flies out of
the webs of spiders. Bullock in Mexico
and Waterton in New Guinea, saw them
catch small butterflies, and found their
stomachs filled with insects. Those who
have watched their habits have observed
them sitting like fy-catchers on twig,
darting off and returning. Mr.. Goss, one
of our most accomplished naturalists,
tells us that all the humming birds have,
more or less, habit, when in flight, of
pausing and quickly turning in the air.
"That the object of these quick turns"
he adds, sis the capture Of insects l am
sure, having watched one thus engaged
pretty close TO me. | observed carefully,
and distinctly saw the minute flies which
it pursued and caught, and heard repeat
edly the swapping of its beak. My pres
ence scarcely disturbed it, if at all"
Moreover, it seems that, however long
may be the bill of the adult hummiDg
bird, the young bird has little, short,
broad, triangular-b like swift 1t is
evident, in short, that the swift is, to use
Mr.. Wallacgss words, pure aerial in
ct-hunter, and that its short, broad bill
and wide cape are essential to its mode
of life The humming birds, on the
other hand, are floral insect-hunters.
They seek their prey among the gorgeous
masses of creepers that hang from bough
to bough in the trackless forests of the
tropics. They dart in and out between
bud and leaf, between blossom and stalk,
as the dragon fly fits among the sedge
and bulrush. But the fiction that they
subsist on honey and nectar alone must
be banished, like other pretty fables, to
the region of myth. The humming bird
is as ravenous a creature in its way as the
robin. No doubt a robin in winter,
when the ground is hard with frost, will
not despise bread crumbs; but his real
delight is in caterpillar, or a fat earth
worm, or a little plump slug. Similarly,
the exquisite, dainty humming bird is a
carnivorous being.-London Telegraph.