Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-17
Our Ruby Throat. [Mrs. Sara A. Hubbard, in Harper's Magazine


 Many times day. as I sit at work by my window, in the genial months of summer. there breaks in on my ear from the garden out side a series of quick, faint, sweet chirps, not louder than the notes of a cricket, yet far more musical, and turning swiftly-for know the sounds we'll descry a humming- bird floating like live emerald amid flowers. As it plunges it's bill into their dainty beakers it murmurs it's happy content in soft, satisfied tones like the cooing of a babe at it's mothers breast. snatch the opera glass always stand ing ready for such occasions, and make study of my fairy visitor as long as it re- mains in sight. Towering in the air on wings vibrating so rapidly that we hear rather than see their marvellous motion, the bird pauses in front of each inviting blossom 8 moment in 8 keenly searching attitude, as if to prove the full promise enticing it forward ere yielding itself up to the warm allurement
 Probing this cup of nectar and passing by that, its choice among the flowers appears to be dictated by purely capricious fancy. Yet it is really intent on an errand somewhat diff ferent from what is generally suspected. the tiny insects which rife the flowers of their honeyed treasures forming the chief charm which attracts it toward them. It is fond of the perfumed syrup distilled in their painted laboratories, but takes it in the way of re fish, or dressing for the fleshy morsels hid den in their deep recesses, which 1t seizes W1JQ the Q9uCAL6 IOrC0pS LlppluS 1Ib tongue. Thus that which seems to be mere wayward coquetry with bevy of beautiful blossoms is in truth the exercise of wise SC lection, the nature of the humming- bird de- manding a more substantial diet than the banquet of sweets served up in the heart of 8 fragrant corolla.
 AS a rule, the nimble sylph depends entire ly upon it's plnions for support while glean- ing it's food from floral repositories, yet I often observe it resting on it's slender feet when the chance is offered. For instance, if a leaf happens to project directly under se ductive blossom, it accepts of the vantage ground though with the air of an unaccus- toned proceeding. It drops it's slim legs, usually tucked out of sight in pillows of down, and stands perfectly still on the green pedes- tai, with wings quiet and even folded, until the quick repast is over. have especially noticed this interesting performance with plants of the balsam family (BGEsGn1taaOg), where the flowers spring from the axis, and one or two in every group, resting just over a leaf, prove awkward to reach unless the bird interrupts it's flight and takes their en ticing tidbits standing.
 These feathered sun-hakes which make a hunting ground of my garden are in the habit of taking rest from their elfin courses on the dry twigs stretching out here and there beyond the green boughs of an oak in view of my window. Here they perch for varying 1uIoEVdl SO1qeClHleS IOr many minutes, per haps 8 half hour altogether. On first alight- ing, they busy themselves with affairs of the toilet, eombing their glossy plumes with their diminutive claws, and drawing the wing feathers one by one through the narrowly opened beak, which is afterward cleaned and polished by rubbing it back and forth vigor- ously against the perch. This careful pro cess finally accomplished, the glistening atomies sit for while in beatifc state of contemplation, now motionless. and dreamy, and again peering about from side to side, with their long sharp bill thrust outward like an emphasized note of interrogation